REESE    LIBRARY 

or  THE 

UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA. 

Received- 
Accessions  No.A^^.7-^-       Shelf  No. 


•§0 


HUMANITY  IMMORTAL; 


OR, 


MAN  TRIED,  FALLEN,  AND  REDEEMED. 


BY 


LAURENS   P.  HICKOK,  D.D.,LL.D. 


•65*15™ 

vV       OF  THE  f 

'UNIVEESITT 


BOSTON: 
LEE    AND    SHEPARD,    PUBLISHERS 

NEW   YORK: 
LEE,  SHEPARD   AND   DILLINGHAM. 

1872. 


I   f 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1872, 

BY  LAURENS  P.  HICKOK, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


•>  -ra    3 


Stereotyped  at  the  Boston  Stereotype  Foundry, 
19  Spring  Lane. 


UNIVERSITY 


PREFACE. 


IN  closing  the  work  of  "  Creator  and  Creation,"  it 
was  noted  that  the  full  Idea  of  Humanity  could  be 
compreii ended  only  in  a  history  of  man  through  his 
trial,  fall,  redemption,  and  resurrection  to  eternal 
Life ;  and  the  design  to  give,  in  an  anticipated 
opportunity,  such  a  history  was  intimated.  That 
history,  as  then  contemplated,  is  here  accomplished. 
In  that  speculative  work  we  found  the  Universe  con- 
stituted a  Cosmos  of  order  and  beauty  from  essential 
Forces,  both  material  and  ethereal ;  and  such  essen- 
tial Forces,  put  in  motion  round  their  creative  source, 
worked  themselves  into  separate  spheres,  and  dis- 
tributed the  spheres  into  revolving  suns  and  plane- 
tary Systems.  However  other  worlds  may  have  their 
dead  matter  quickened  into  life,  on  our  earth  an  Or- 
ganizing Instinct  was,  by  the  Creator,  superinduced 
upon  a  portion  of  the  ethereal  Atoms  as  an  assimila- 
tive life-power,  communicating  itself  to  and  working 
in  other  mechanical  forces  to  build  them  up  in  living 
bodies,  and  so  from  the  Mineral  kingdom 'were  formed 
the  plants  and  trees  of  the  Vegetable  kingdom ;  and 
out  of  and  above  this  were  wrought  the  nervous  or- 
ganisms for  sentient  life  in  the  Animal  kingdom  ;  and 

3 


4  PREFACE. 

in  the  union  of  sense  with  reason  in  Humanity,  the 
whole  creative  work  was  crowned  by  installing  over 
all  the  sovereign  prerogatives  of  a  Spiritual  king- 
dom. All  the  former  find  their  end  in  entire  sub- 
serviency to  the  imperative  claims  of  the  last. 

The  life-instinct  in  the  vegetable  kingdom  never 
rises  into  consciousness ;  the  animal  kingdom  has 
sentient  life  in  persistent  consciousness  only  so  long 
as  it  may  hold  the  nervous  organism  in  combination, 
and  the  dissolution  of  the  nervous  system  is  the  de- 
struction of  all  sensibility ;  but  the  spiritual  kingdom 
has  immortal  life  and  intelligence.  Absolute  Reason 
neither  begins  nor  ends,  and  the  inspiration  of  finite 
reason  in  the  human  individual  secures  for  him  per- 
petual personality.  Vegetable  and  animal  organisms 
;  fall  asunder  and  perish,  for  the  life-power  which  builds 
and  holds  them  in  individuality  is  the  causal  efficiency 
of  nature  only ;  but  reason  is  supernatural,  and  wher- 
ever it  comes  it  carries  with  it  eternal  rights  and 
claims,  and  no  power  less  than  the  creative,  which 
first  breathed  rational  spirit  into  man,  can  take  back 
his  immortal  prerogatives  from  man.  The  primal 
forces,  in  which  the  individual  human  life  begins, 
must  be  perpetuated  through  life  to  preserve  its 
identity;  and  the  bond  which  holds  the  identical 
forces  in  human  individuality  is  rational  Spirit,  which 
cannot  work  in  the  sentient  life  it  is  set  to  control 
without  awaking  claims  that  forever  attach  sentient 
soul  and  rational  spirit  together;  and  hence  every 
human  individual  must  have  also  its  immortal  sentient 
identity.  No  matter  how  many,  nor  how  often,  ad- 


\pj 


PREFACE.  5 

ventitious  elements  may  assimilate  with,  and  dissolve 
from,  these  primal  essential  forces  which  perpetuate 
the  man's  identity ;  his  spiritual  individuality  will  hold 
those  essential  forces  to  be  his,  unless  God  withdraw 
his  own  in-breathing,  and  so  himself  undo  his  own 
original  creating. 

Every  human  life  has.  thus  a  perpetual  ongoing  ex-  ( 
perience,  and  as  each  is  a  propagation  from  an  origi- 
nal stock  by  natural  generation,  so  the  primitive  life 
sends  down  its  connections  through  all,  and  makes 
for  humanity  a  universal  history.  In  that  which  is 
peculiar  to  man  must  human  experience  and  history 
differ  from  other  spiritual  communities  in  other 
spheres ;  but  since  the  one  Father  of  spirits  is  Crea- 
tor and  Lord  of  all  spirits,  so  in  this  one  source  of 
all  authority  and  responsibility  must  all  rational  be- 
ings, in  all  worlds,  be  necessarily  implicated  in  com- 
mon interests,  and  stand  each  to  each  in  reciprocity 
of  rights  and  obligations.  The  work  now  before  us 
is  to  trace,  in  general  outline,  the  specific  History  of 
Humanity  from  its  beginning  to  its  consummation  in 
the  eternal  state,  with  the  communings  and  collisions 
that  may  occur  with  other  orders  of  spiritual  intelli- 
gences ;  taking  as  our  guide  the  offered  light  from 
speculative  reason,  and  from  divine  revelation,  and, 
so  far  as  the  facts  of  experience  may  be  gathered, 
from  the  records  of  past  ages.  The  light  shining 
from  all  these  sources  must  give  in  all  readings  the 
same  one  meaning,  since  all  are  reflections  from  the 
one  pure  source  of  Absolute  Truth  and  Wisdom. 

In  the  same  foregoing  work  referred  to,  it  was  noted 


6  PREFACE. 

that  the  creating  Absolute  Spirit  cannot  be  an  object 
of  knowledge  except  as  contemplated  in  three  dis- 
tinct agencies,  each  as  Will  working  in  consciousness 
through  its  peculiar  appropriation  for  itself  of  the 
one  Absolute  Keason-consciousuess.  As  originator 
of  the  pure  ideal  universe,  the  first  is  the  Father; 
as  expressing  this  in  overt  manifestation,  the  second 
is  the  Word ;  and  as  holding  all  comprehensively  in 
one,  the  third  is  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  not  only  in 
Creation;  in  governmental  administration  and  fre- 
quent communication,  the  same  threefold  agency  in 
the  one  Absolute  Being  must  also  necessarily  be 
recognized.  The  second  reveals  the  secret  purpose 
of  the  first  in  such  communications,  and  the  third 
secures  the  execution,  in  human  heart  and  will,  of 
that  counsel  which  the  first  has  and  the  second 
publishes.  The  Holy  Ghost  has  its  more  special  dis- 
pensation in  the  later  experiences  of  the  race,  but 
the  expressing  Logos  is  from  the  start  the  appropri- 
ate Mediator  between  God  and  Man,  openly  exhibit- 
ing the  inner  heart  of  Deity,  and  intimately  commin- 
gling his  agency  with  the  experiences  of  the  human 
£/  family.  An  exclusive  Mediatorial  kingdom  is  by  him 
established  among  men,  which  in  legislation  and 
administration  has  nowhere  else  its  parallel.  Both 
the  Word  and  Spirit  make  here  their  disclosures  of  the 
Mystery  of  Godliness  in  ways  altogether  else  unpre- 
cedented, and  greatly  adding  interest  and  importance  to 
the  spiritual  history  of  Humanity.  We  proceed  to  re- 
late it  as  we  shall  carefully  find  it. 
AMHERST,  MASS.,  1872. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 


PAGE 

THE   PRIMITIVE   TRIAL   OF   HUMANITY.  17 


SECTION   I. 

PRINCIPLES     NECESSARILY     DIRECTING     IN    THE 
TRIAL 19 

1.  INTEGRITY  OP  CHARACTER  is  IN  THE  CONTROL   OF  SENSE 

BY  SPIRIT 20 

2.  THE  TRIAL  MUST  BE  IMPOSED  AT  THE  OUTSET 22 

3.  THE   TEST    MUST   PUT    SENSE    AND    SPIRIT    SQUARELY    IN 

CONFLICT 23 

4.  THE  DESTRUCTION,  IF   DISOBEDIENT,  SHOULD  BE  PLAINLY 

ANNOUNCED 25 

5.  CAPABILITY  FOR  THE  FUTURE  BLISS  CAN  BE  ONLY  IN  PASS- 

ING THE  TRIAL 27 

SECTION   II. 

THE   TEMPTATION   AND  FALL  OF   MAN 29 

1.  THE  MANNER  IN  WHICH  ADAM  AND  EVE  WERE  TEMPTED.  31 

2.  THE  PROCESS  AND  SUCCESS  OF  SATAN'S  TEMPTATION.    .    .  34 

3.  THE  SIN  OF  MAN  WAS  WHOLLY  HIS  OWN  ORIGINATION.    .  38 

7 


CONTENTS. 


SECTION  III. 

CHANGES   INDUCED   BY  THE   SIN  OF   MAN 40 

1.  CHANGES  ON  THE  PART  OF  THE  MAN  AND  WOMAN.    ...  42 

t.    Sense  had  assumed  the  Sovereignty.  .......  42 

ii.   Their  Sin  induced  perpetual  Shame  and  Fear.     .    .  43 

Hi.   Their  State  became  impotent  and  hopeless 44 

2.  CHANGES  TOWARDS  MAN  ON  THE  PART  OF  GOD 45 

i.   There  was  manifested  deep  Disapprobation 45 

ii.   There  was  Paternal  Compassion 46 

Hi.   From  Displeasure  and  Pity  came  the  Purpose  of 

Redemption 47 

iv.   Open  Communion  was  changed  to  Mediation.  ...  49 
v.   God's  Dealings  changed  to  blended  Severity  and 

Kindness 50 

8.   CHANGES  REGARDING  HUMANITY  IN  GENERAL 52 

,1.   Adam  ceased  to  act  as  Public  Head  of  the  Race.  .    .  52 

ii.   Fallen  Humanity  will  now  perpetuate  Depravity.    .  54 
Hi.   The  Promised  Redemption  assumed  this  Universal 

Change 58 

iv.   A  Remedial  System  must  have  better  Promise.     .   .  59 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE  REDEEMER  MUST   PREPARE    HUMANITY  FOR 
HIS  ADVENT 61 

SECTION   I. 

SPECIAL  PROVIDENCES  CURB  DEPRAVED  PROPEN- 
SITIES  63 

1.  THE  WORLD  OVERWHELMED  BY  THE  FLOOD 65 

2.  SHORTENING  OF  HUMAN  LIFE 67 

3.  GUARDING  LIFE  BY  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT 69 

4.  CONFOUNDING  THEIR  LANGUAGE 71 


CONTENTS.  9 

SECTION   II. 

THE   CALL  OF   ABRAHAM 74 

1.  MEANS  FOE  SECURING  ABRAHAM'S  FAITH  AND  DEVOTION.  .  77 

2.  INFLUENCE  ON  ABRAHAM'S  DESCENDANTS  IN  THE  LINE  OF 

PROMISE 79 

SECTION   III. 

EGYPT,    AND    THE    GOING    OF    THE    ISRAELITES 

DOWN  TO  IT 81 

1.  SETTLEMENT  AND  GROWTH  OF  EGYPT 83 

2.  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  EGYPT 92 

3.  THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT 93 

4.  THE  ISRAELITES'  REMOVAL  TO  EGYPT 98 

SECTION  IV. 

THE   EXODUS,  AND  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE   HE- 
BREW  GOVERNMENT 103 

1.  HEBREW  CHARACTER  FROM  EGYPTIAN  EDUCATION 104 

2.  A  THEOCRACY  ADOPTED  BY  GOD  AND  THE  PEOPLE.    .   .    .  107 

3.  THE  HEBREW  THEOCRACY  ACKNOWLEDGED  THE  TRUE  GOD 

ONLY 110 

4.  SPECIAL  ORDINANCES  SEPARATING  ISRAEL  FROM  IDOLATERS.  118 

SECTION   V. 

TRUTHS     OF     REDEMPTION    UNDER    A     DOUBLE- 
SENSE 123 

1.  THE  PASSOVER  FEAST 125 

2.  CEREMONY  OF  THE  SCAPE-GOAT 127 

3.  THE   CONSTRUCTION  AND   SERVICES   OF  TABERNACLE  AND 

TEMPLE 128 

4.  DOUBLE- SENSE  DEMANDS  CAREFUL  DISCRIMINATION.    ...  129 
6.   THE  THEOCRATIC  RITUAL  A  SPIRITUAL  SERVICE 133 


10  CONTENTS. 

SECTION   VI. 

ADMINISTRATION    OF    THE    THEOCRACY    TO    THE 
CAPTIVITY 135 

1.  THEOCRACY  UNDER  MOSES 136 

2.  THEOCRACY  UNDER  JOSHUA 140 

3.  THEOCRACY  UNDER  THE  JUDGES 144 

4.  THEOCRACY  UNDER  THE  KINGS 146 

5.  DIVISION  AND  DISPERSION  OF  ISRAEL,  AND  CAPTIVITY  OF 

JUDAH 154 

SECTION   VII. 
FROM  CAPTIVITY  TO   COMING   OF  THE   MESSIAH.   163 

1.  THE  JEWS  WHILE  SUBJECT  TO  THE  ASSYRIANS 165 

2.  WHILE  SUBJECT  TO  THE  PERSIANS 169 

3.  WHILE  SUBJECT  TO  ALEXANDER  AND  SUCCESSORS 174 

4.  WHILE  UNDER  THE  MACCABEES 179 

5.  WHILE  UNDER  THE  ROMANS 184 

6.  THE  MINISTRY  OF  JOHN  BAPTIST 188 

».   Design  of  John's  Dispensation 190 

ii.   Peculiarity  of  John's  Baptism. 192 

Hi.   Account  of  John's  Life  and  Times.  .  .    194 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  INCARNATION,  WORK,  AND  DOCTRINE  OF  THE 
REDEEMER 198 

SECTION  I. 
THE  INCARNATION  OF  THE  LOGOS .200 

1.  THE  REDEEMER  is  BORN  OF  A  VIRGIN 200 

2.  JESUS  WAS  BORN  MORE  THAN  HUMAN 203 

3.  THOUGH  DIVINE  AND  HUMAN,  HE  WAS  ONE  BEING.     .    .    .   207 

4.  IN   HIMSELF   HE   IS  PROPHET.   PRIEST,   AND    KlNG 210 


CONTENTS.  11 


SECTION    II. 

THE    REDEMPTIVE    WORK    WROUGHT    IN    HUMAN 

FLESH 213 

1.  His  WORK  OPENED  IN  PRIVATE  CONFLICT  WITH  THE  DEVIL.  215 

2.  GENERAL  OUTLINE  OF  CHRIST'S  PUBLIC  MINISTRY 218 

3.  COMPREHENSIVE  IMPORT  OF  HIS  TEACHING 224 

4.  His  LIFE  AND  EXAMPLE  LIKE  HIS  TEACHING 225 

5.  CRUCIFIXION,  AND  RESURRECTION  THE  THIRD  DAT 227 

SECTION   III. 

THE  DOCTRINES  OF  REDEMPTION  IN  THE  INCAR- 
NATION   228 

1.  GOSPEL  REDEMPTION  is  IN  NO  WAY  OF  LEGAL  JUSTICE.  .  230 

2.  IN  THE  INCARNATION  PENAL  JUSTICE  TAKES  AN  EQUIVALENT.  233 

3.  THE  WORD  MADE  FLESH  HAS  MAGNIFIED  THE  LAW.  .   .    .  235 

4.  THE  INCARNATION  is  EQUIVALENT  FOR  PIETY  AS  WELL  AS 

PENALTY 238 

5.  IT  OPENS  THE  NEW  PRINCIPLE  OF  OBEDIENCE  FROM  GRATE- 

FUL LOVE 241 

6.  REDEMPTION  OPENED  TO  ALL,  BUT  APPROPRIATED  ONLY  BY 

THE  RENEWED 244 

t.   In  the  Way  of  Pardon 245 

ii.   In  the  Way  of  Justification 246 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  HOLY  GHOST   SEALS  REDEMPTION   TO    MAN.  249 

SECTION   I. 

THE  MANNER  OF  THE   SPIRIT'S    COMING 250 

1.  THE  MOSAIC  RITUAL  PREFIGURED  THE  SPIRIT'S  WORK.  .   .  251 

2.  His  COMING  WAS  ANNOUNCED  IN  PROPHECY 252 

3.  His  COMING  PROMISED  BY  CHRIST  TO  HIS  DISCIPLES.    .   .  253 

4.  His  DESCENT  AT  PENTECOST 256 


12  CONTENTS. 

SECTION  II. 

THE   MANNER  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT'S  AGENCY.  .   .  258 

1.  IT  is  A  MORAL  POWER,  NOT  PHYSICAL  FORCE 258 

2.  ITS  ACTION  is  DIRECT  UPON  MIND 260 

3.  IT  PRECEDES  AND  TENDS  TO  RIGHT  ACTION  BT  MAN.  .    .    .  261 

4.  IT  MAT  BE  RESISTED  BT  THE  SlNNER 262 

5.  THE  EFFECTUAL  CALLING  INDUCES  A  COMPLTING  WILL.  .    .  264 

6.  THE  ASSENTING  WILL  MUST  BE  TO  THE  TRUTH 265 

SECTION   III. 

THE  WORK  THE   HOLY   SPIRIT   ACCOMPLISHES.  .    .  266 

1.  THE  SPIRIT'S  WORK  IN  INSPIRATION 267 

2.  THE  SPIRIT'S  WORK  IN  MIRACLES '. 271 

3.  THE  SPIRIT'S  WORK  IN  REGENERATION 275 

4.  THE  SPIRIT'S  WORK  IN  SANCTIFICATION 280 

t.   It  is  within  the  Human  Spirit 281 

ii.   It  secures  Perseverance 282 

Hi.   It  will  perfect  Sanctification  only  at  Death 284 

5.  THE  WORK  OF  THE  SPIRIT  is  IN  SOVEREIGNTY  .....  286 

CHAPTER    V. 

THE  LAST  THINGS  IN  THE  REDEMPTION  OF  HU- 
MANITY    .....  291 

SECTION   I. 

SPECULATIVE  VIEW  OF  HUMAN  DEATH 293 

1.  ALL  DEATH  DIFFERS  FROM  NATURAL  DECOMPOSITION.    .    .  294 

2.  THE  VEGETABLE    HAS   THE   LOWEST   LIFE   AND   SIMPLEST 

FORM  OF  DEATH 294 

3.  THE  ANIMAL  is  SENTIENT,  AND  HAS  A  DEATH  OF  SENSATION.  295 

4.  HUMAN  DEATH   DIVIDES,   BUT   LEAVES    SOUL   AND    SPIRIT 

IMMORTAL 297 


CONTENTS.  13 

. 

SECTION   II. 

THE   INTERMEDIATE   STATE 300 

1.  CONSCIOUS  INDIVIDUALITY  AFTER  DEATH 302 

2.  THE  SPIRITUAL  WORLD 304 

3.  ALL  RESTRICTION  is  FROM  THE  DISPOSITION 305 

4.  THERE   is   NO   OPPORTUNITY   FOR  PURGATORIAL   EXPERI- 

ENCES  306 

6.   WHERE  THE   SPIRIT   GOES  AT  DEATH  WILL  BE  ITS  FINAL 

STATE 307 

SECTION   III. 
THE  RESURRECTION 308 

1.  THE  RESURRECTION  INDICATED  IN  THE  ANALOGIES  OF  NA- 

TURE  308 

2.  INSTINCTIVE  ANTICIPATIONS  ARE  PREMONITIONS  OP  IT.  .   .   310 

3.  THE  REASON  OF  THE  CASE  CLAIMS  THE  REUNION  OF  SOUL 

AND  SPIRIT 310 

4.  REVELATION  THE  ULTIMATE  AUTHORITY  FOR  IT 311 

5.  THE  RESURRECTION-BODY  SPECIALLY  CHANGED 314 

6.  THE  RESURRECTION,  AS  PRESENTED  BY  THE  APOSTLE  PAUL.   318 

7.  REVEALED  RESURRECTIONS  AND  TRANSLATIONS 321 

SECTION   IV. 

THE  FINAL  JUDGMENT 324 

1.  DESIGN  OF  THE  FINAL  JUDGMENT 325 

2.  EVIDENCES  FOR  A  FINAL  JUDGMENT 326 

3.  THE  JUDGMENT  WILL  COME  SUDDENLY  AND  UNEXPECTEDLY.  327 

4.  THE  JUDGE  WILL  APPEAR  IN  GREAT  MAJESTY 328 

5.  THOSE  WHO  ARE  TO  BE  JUDGED 329 

6.  ALL  SECRETS  LAID  OPEN 330 

7.  THE  FORM  AND  PROCESS  OF  THE  JUDGMENT.    ««••««  331 

8.  THB  GENERAL  CONFLAGRATION.  .                                     ...  332 


14  CONTENTS. 


SECTION   V. 

ISSUES  OF  THE  JUDGMENT  FOB  BOTH  GOOD  AND 

BAD 333 

1.  ALL  GOD'S  PRECEDING  DEALINGS  HAVE  BEEN  REASONABLE.  334 

2.  GOD  WILL  FOR  THE  FUTURE  BE   UNIVERSALLY  REASONABLE.  338 

3.  REVELATION   ALSO  PUTS  FUTURE  CONDITION  UPON  CHAR- 

ACTER   341 

4.  PROBATION  IN  LIFE,  ENDLESS  RETRIBUTION  AT  DEATH.  .   .  342 

i.   Proved  from  Record  of  Providential  Judgments.     .  343 
ii.    Proved   from    the    Feelings    manifest   in    Inspired 

Teachers 344 

in.   Proved  from  Conduct  of  their  Hearers 345 

iv.   Proved  from  plain  Scripture  Declarations 345 

SECTION   VI. 

THE  END   OF  THE  MEDIATORIAL  REIGN 347 

1.  THE  KINGDOM  AUTHORITATIVELY  GIVEN  TO  CHRIST.    .   .    .  349 

2.  HE  CONSUMMATES  HIS  REIGN  IN  SUBJECTING  ALL  THINGS.  351 

3.  PAUL  SEES,   AND  ALONE  STATES,  THE  RENUNCIATION  OF 

THE  KINGDOM 354 

4.  THE  APOSTLE  JOHN  SEES  AND  STATES  WHAT  is  BEYOND.  .  359 


HUMANITY   IMMORTAL. 


THE  highest   elevation   attained  in  nature  is  the, 
gratification  of  sentient  life  in  the  animal  kingdom./  ^ 
But  in  man  sense  has  been  crowned  with  reason,  and 
as  supernatural,  man  has  dominion  over  nature,  and  'v^o*- 
an  end  of  life  far  exalted  above  all  animal  happiness.  ^£**fS*xA< 
His  highest  prerogatives  stand  in  his  endowment  of  , 
reason,  which  renders  him  competent  to  attain  moral 
h«-yft*+r character,  and   in  his  spiritual  integrity  to  possess 
that  true  dignity  which  secures  the  respect  and  ap- 
'bation  of  all  rational  intelligences.      The  manly 
valor  which  holds  all  sense-appetite  in  subordination 
'   ^  to  spiritual  integrity,  is  true  virtue,  and  this  must  be 
**-/**+** attained  and  persistently  kept,  or  self-reproach  and 

public  condemnation  must  follow.  _  ^jpn^**^ 

Confirmed  and  stable  character  in  virtue  can  be 
attained  only  through  full  trial  and  discipline.  From 
-  ff*  the  very  constitution  of  humanity,  "  the  flesh  lusteth 
pig  *  :.*-  against  the  spirit,  and  the  spirit  against  the  flesh,  and 
these  are  contrary  the  one  to  the  other,"  and  from 

•  ..->• 


16  PRIMITIVE  TRIAL   OF  HUMANITY. 

self-conflict  alone  can  there  be  found  self-conquest  ; 
and  without  the  trial  which  opens  a  way  for  defeat 
and  shame  there  cannot  be  victory  and  honor.  It  is 
no  matter  of  choice,  but  necessity  in  the  case  itself, 
that  humanity  must  be  fully  tested,  since  veteran 
courage  and  inflexible  integrity  can  be  gained  and 
established  only  through  the  discipline  of  sore  temp- 
./  tation  and  intense  opposition.  It  is  not  paternal 
faithfulness,  but  parental  weakness,  which  will  with- 
draw the  child  from  rigorous  tests  to  his  fidelity  and 
allegiance.  The  virtue  which  has  endured  the  sever- 
est conflicts  is  the  most  precious,  and  the  love  to 
truth  and  duty,  which  has  in  its  way  made  the  most 
sacrifices  for  truth  and  duty,  is  the  most  strong  and 
reliable  ;  while  no  seeming  fidelity,  which  stands  only 
amid  favoring  interests  and  congenial  inclinations,  can 
be  trusted  in  the  day  of  adversity  and  persecution. 
The  sterling  character  is  matured  in  the  process  of 
struggle  and  conflict,  and  the  "  patience,  experience, 
and  hope  that  maketh  not  ashamed,"  are  only  attained 
by  having  passed  through  "  divers  temptations."  The 
first  necessity  for  the  newly  created  humanity  is  a 
fairly  arranged  discipline  for  the  trial  in  virtue. 


/I  /  /!3,  fj-t.  t~t^»       <r-*~^  _  .     ft       i%*  *  *  .  .     7  .  >!    . 


CHAPTER  I.*J 

^v^l 

THE  PRIMITIVE   TRIAL   OP   HUMAOTTY. 


THE  nature  of  the  case  determines  the  necessity 
for  human  discipline  ;  and  if  there  be  other  orders  of 
rational  beings,  the  only  way  in  which  they  also  can 
be  established  in  virtue,  and  maintain  the  integrity  of 
moral  character,  is  by  an  applied  trial  appropriate  to;^ 
their  constitution  and  condition.  Many  things,  both  . 
from  speculation  and  the  facts  connected  with  the  ;  * 
Divine  Revelation  of  the  trial  of  man,  indicate  that  Au.- 
his  trial  was  at  the  same  time  an  occasion  for  the  dis-  ^ 


cipline  and  trial  of  other  and  higher  grades  of  intelli-  ca^ 
gent  beings;  and  that  while  some  sustained  the  trial^ 


and  gained  confirmation  in  loyalty,  others  wilfully  reW  **£  . 
volted  from  their  allegiance,  and  in  their  fall  became 
also  direct  sources  of  temptation  and  corruption  to 
the  human  family.  Nothing  in  reason  or  revelation 
contradicts,  while  much  in  both  indicates,  that  all  sin 
which  has  come  into  the  universe  found  its  first  en- 
trance in  connection  with  man's  trial  and  primitive 
disobedience. 

Repeated  irruptions  of  sin  and  rebellion  in  separate 
2  17 


18  PRIMITIVE   TRIAL    OF   HUMANITY. 

orders  or  worlds  of  the  divine  government,  making 
necessary  varied  methods  of  vindicating  God's  author- 
ity by  retribution  or  redemption,  can  hardly  be  recon- 
ciled, by  any  rational  speculation,  with  the  majesty 
and  integrity  of  the  sovereignty ;  while  ready  relief 
in  reconciling  the  admission  of  sin  with  the  divine 
attributes  is  attained,  by  supposing  all  ranks  of  moral 
beings  to  have  stood  firm  in  allegiance  through  pre- 
vious discipline,  till,  in  the  new  circumstances  occa- 
sioned by  man's  creation  and  trial,  they  came  to  a 
sharper  test  of  fidelity,  which  many  improved  for 
firmer  confirmation  in  loyalty,  and  some  perverted  the 
(/  occasion  and  fell  off  in  rebellion.  If  but  slight  hints 
that  this  was  so,  be  found  in  revelation,  their  plain 
conformity  with  the  reason  of  the  case  would  make 
slight  intimations  grounds  of  safe  conclusion.  One 
occasion  for  sin,  and  one  interposition  for  divine  vin- 
dication in  permitting  it,  will,  then,  be  sufficient  for  all 

y  worlds  through  eternity.  With  such  supposition,  man 
is  at  once  made  the  central  point  of  moral  interest  for 
the  universe,  according  with  Scripture  representation, 
that  angels  intently  watch  God's  dealings  with  our 
small  world.  He  is  revealing  himself  here  as  he  does 
on  no  other  theatre,  and  all  orders  of  spirits  look  on 

#     and  wonder. 


PRINCIPLES   DETERMINING  THE  TRIAL.  19 


SECTION    I. 

PRINCIPLES  NECESSARILY  DIRECTING  IN  THE  TRIAL. 

HUMANITY,  from  its  constitution  and  relation  to  its 
Creator,  presents  many  points  from  which  the  reason 
sees  determining  principles,  relatively  to  the  disci- 
pline which  must  be  applied,  and  the  trial  it  should 
receive  at  the  hand  of  the  Father  and  Sovereign  of 
the  human  family.  It  does  not  lie  open  to  arbitrary 
arrangements  on  the  part  of  the  sovereign,  nor  admit 
that  there  be  any  claim  to  consent  on  the  part  of  man 
to  arrangements  divinely  made.  It  cannot  be  viewed 
in  the  light  of  covenant-making,  binding  by  mutual 
contract;  but  from  the  state  of  the  parties,  the  fact 
and  the  manner  of  trial  must  be  settled  by  the  Crea- 
tor himself,  on  considerations  which  he  shall  see  to 
be  equitable  and  reasonable,  in  view  of  his  own  honor, 
and  what  also  shall  be  seen  to  be  the  most  favorable 
to  a  happy  issue  on  the  part  of  man.  The  paternal 
heart  of  the  sovereign  is  more  deeply  interested  in 
securing  confirmed  loyalty  and  perpetual  safety  to 
the  human  race,  than  any  other  being;  and  just  as 
the  divine  perfections  make  God  sovereign,  so  they 
also  determine  that  he  is  to  appoint  the  mode  of  dis- 
cipline and  direct  in  all  the  trial.  Absolute  Keason 


20  PRIMITIVE   TRIAL   OF   HUMANITY. 

must  control  and  guide  himself  in  all  his  arrange- 
ments by  eternal  principles  of  rectitude  and  benev- 
olence. 

1.  THE  INTEGRITY  OF  HUMAN  CHARACTER  is  IN  THE 
CONTROL  OF  SENSE  BY  THE  SPIRIT.  —  Humanity  is  con- 
stituted of  sense  and  spirit,  and  to  one  or  the  other 
must  the  supreme  control  be  given.  There  can  be  no 
neutral  position  between  the  ends  of  gratifying  sense 
and  honoring  the  spirit ;  and  the  point  of  danger  is 
the  disposing  of  the  spiritual  activity  to  the  end  of 
sense-gratification,  and  therein  incurring  spiritual 
degradation.  The  alternatives  presented  are  not  at 
all  of  degrees  in  the  same  thing,  but  of  utterly  dis- 
tinct  kinds.  Gratification  of  sense  and  approbation 
of  spirit  cannot  be  included  under  any  one  term,  as 
happiness,  or  blessedness,  so  that  it  may  become  a 
question  of  policy  or  expediency  in  taking  that  which 
shall  on  the  whole  give  the  most ;  the  question  of  vir- 
tue, or  integrity  of  character,  is  only  in  taking  the 
spiritual  end,  and  this  is  wholly  lost  in  taking  the  end 
of  sense.  An  animal  may  be  guided  by  prudential 
considerations  in  attaining  highest  happiness  on  the 
whole,  since  sentient  gratification  is  the  end  of  ani- 
mal life,  and  by  no  way  can  the  animal  attain  integ- 
rity of  character  in  virtue.  But  for  man  to  attain  the 
highest  gratification  possible,  as  end  of  his  life,  would 
be  not  only  the  missing  of  all  virtue,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  brute,  but  the  incurring  unmitigated  sin  and 
guilt.  The  highest  possible  happiness  sought  and 


PRINCIPLES   DETERMINING  THE   TRIAL.  21 

attained  against  the  end  the  spirit  claims,  subjects  the 
spirit  to  perpetual  debasement  and  shame.  And  with 
the  spirit  so  subjected  to  sense,  and  self-disposed  to 
carnal  indulgence,  it  is  also  ready  for  all  spiritual 
wickedness  in  its  own  high  sphere  of  mere  spiritual 
agency.  The  spirit  itself  has  in  this  become  alienated 
from  the  ends  of  all  other  spirits,  and  in  its  selfishness 
it  will  manifest  its  pride,  and  scorn,  and  hate,  and 
envy,  and  jealousy,  and  revenge,  as  the  devils  do,  who 
can  have  no  carnal  lusting.  The  birthright  of  hu- 
manity is  perpetual  self-approbation,  securing  eternal- 
ly God's  approbation  ;  but  in  fixing  on  sense-gratifica- 
tion and  self-ascendency,  there  is  inevitable  self-deg- 
radation and  divine  abhorrence. 

Any  one  appetite  allowed  to  control  the  spirit  will 
keep  the  door  open  for  every  appetite  when  its  occasion 
comes  ;  and  only  by  putting  and  keeping  "  the  body 
under  "  can  the  man  be  safe,  or  his  conscience  peaceful. 
The  fruit  of  the  fleshy  disposition  is  in  all  forms  of 
iniquity,  and  the  fruit  of  a  spiritual  disposing  is  every 
virtue.1  The  entire  moral  man  is  in  his  disposition, 
and  out  of  it,  as  carnal  or  spiritual,  come  all  the  vices 
or  virtues  of  his  life.  To  be  complete,  then,  the  trial 
need  not  be  made  in  reference  to  every  sensuous 
appetite,  nor  any  more  in  regard  to  every  spiritual 
claim ;  when  fairly  made  in  reference  to  some  one 
opening  for  sensual  indulgence,  it  will  be  conclusive 
for  all,  and  the  test  will  need  neither  repeating  nor 
varying.  The  trial  must  be,  or  the  virtue  cannot  be 

1  Gal.  v.  19-23. 


22  PRIMITIVE   TRIAL   OF   HUMANITY. 

confirmed  and  established,  but  fairly  and  fully  to  put 
the  man  between  the  ends  of  the  flesh  and  the  ends 
of  the  rational  spirit,  for  the  issue  of  his  sense-dis- 
posing or  his  spirit-disposing,  is  all  that  is  needful ; 
and  as  the  disposition  which  he  shall  there  give  to 
himself  may  be,  such  will  be  his  radical  character  ou 
his  own  responsibility.  In  some  way  the  trial  and  the 
issue  must  come,  and  the  only  question  is,  whe'ther 
the  trial  shall  be  left  to  a  fortuitous  occurrence,  or 
whether  it  shall  be  divinely  and  thus  paternally 
ordered.  The  first  must  be  unreasonable,  the  latter 
must  every  way  be  desirable. 

2.  THE  TRIAL  MUST  BE  IMPOSED  AT  THE  VERY  OUT- 
SET. —  Were  humanity  left  to  its  own  way,  and  the 
first  man  started  upon  his  practical  course  under  the 
light  and  influence  which  daily  experience  alone 
might  give,  the  issue  between  sense  and  spirit  in 
his  constitution  would  be  soon  joined  and  the  disposi- 
tion taken.  Appetite  would  immediately  prompt  to 
gratification,  and  reason  must  soon  assert  its  claims, 
and  the  occasion  come  for  a  conflict  between  passion- 
ate impulse  and  conscious  obligation ;  and  the  dispos- 
ing of  the  spirit  in  servile  compliance  with  the  appe- 
titive impulse,  or  the  imperative  behest,  would  form 
and  fix  the  radical  character  accordingly.  But  for 
the  sake  of  God  and  man,  such  fortuitous  trial  should 
be  prevented.  God's  love  to  righteousness,  and  his 
kind  care  for  his  intelligent  creatures,  will  certainly 
secure  that  the  most  favoring  conditions  and  influ- 


PEINCIPLES  DETERMINING  THE  TRIAL.  23 

ences  for  the  integrity  of  the  spirit,  consistent  with 
the  completeness  of  the  trial,  shall  be  interposed. 

And  such  divine  arrangement  and  interposition 
must  be  at  the  start,  for  the  discipline  immediately 
commences  with  the  opening  experience,  and  any 
delay  will  endanger  the  issue  in  a  fixed  disposition 
before  the  paternal  arrangements  are  made.  If,  in 
such  delay,  an  issue  should  be  disastrous,  although 
man  would  have  fixed  his  character  by  his  own  act, 
and  on  his  responsibility,  yet  must  there  ever  be 
the  unhappy  reflection  that  the  prompt  benevolence 
of  the  Creator  had  failed  in  doing  for  human  holiness 
all  that  full  equity  and  justice  would  have  allowed. 
To  satisfy  his  own  fatherly  heart,  and  show  to  man- 
kind forever  his  earliest  love  and  regard  for  human 
welfare,  God  will  infallibly  begin  his  dealings  with 
humanity  by  putting  man  amid  arrangements  for 
discipline  and  trial  as  salutary  and  kindly  influential 
as  possible,  consistent  with  its  necessary  strictness. 
The  very  first  point  in  human  history  must,  therefore, 
be  the  account  of  God's  arrangements,  under  which 
he  wisely  determines  that  the  character  of  the  first 
human  pair  shall  be  formed.  This,  and  the  general 
facts  of  the  process  and  result,  will  stand  upon  the 
very  first  page,  and  all  subsequent  pages  of  human 
history  must  transmit  the  hue  which  colors  the  trans- 
actions of  this  earliest  record. 

3.    THE  TEST  MUST    PUT   THE    SENSE   AND   SPIRIT 
SQUARELY  IN  CONFLICT.  —  In  many  cases  appetite  will 


24  PRIMITIVE  TRIAL   OP  HUMANITY. 

stand  in  accordance  with  obligation  ;  or  if  at  variance 
at  all,  it  may  be  remotely  and  obscurely,  and  some- 
times the  motives  may  present  themselves  in  a 
blended  form,  as  partly  sensual  only,  and  which  may 
plausibly  be  taken  as  wholly  spiritual ;  and  while  in 
any  position  the  man  would  be  bound  to  carefully  dis- 
criminate, and  act  upon  his  full  responsibility  to  the 
honor  and  dignity  of  his  spirit,  and  could  acquire  no 
virtue  except  as  he  was  spiritually  disposed,  yet 
would  not  any  mixed  and  confused  appeal  appear 
reasonable,  as  an  appointed  and  formal  method  of 
trial.  If  God  should  interpose  and  put  his  own 
arrangements  in  order  for  human  discipline,  and  test 
the  human  spirit  the  most  fairly  and  decisively,  it  is 
manifestly  reasonable  that  the  issue  be  directly  joined, 
and  the  sense  and  the  spirit  be  set  clearly  and 
squarely  one  against  the  other. 

Any  constitutional  appetite  may  be  taken,  and  the 
desire  of  gratification  strongly  excited,  and  in  fact 
but  one  act  of  tried  gratification  can  occur  at  one 
time  ;  and  over  against  this  there  may  be  put,  and 
strongly  pressed,  any  claim  purely  spiritual,  and  be- 
tween such  conflicting  appeals  the  issue  will  be 
fairly  joined,  and  the  strength  and  integrity  of  the 
spirit  directly  put  upon  trial.  The  claim  of  reason, 
in  the  end  and  honor  of  the  finite  spirit  only,  might 
lack  both  in  clearness  and  strength  for  a  fair  and 
favorable  issue ;  but  if  the  finite  spirit  be  thrown 
directly  upon  its  allegiance  to  the  Absolute  Spirit, 
and  made  to  stand  under  the  pressure  of  positive 


PEINCIPLES   DETEEMINING   THE   TRIAL.  25 

divine  authority,  the  utmost  clearness  and  strength 
of  spiritual  claim  may  thus  be  applied.  When  a 
positive  command,  a  known  "  thus  saith  the  Lord," 
stands  over  against  an  excited  sensual  impulse,  and 
is  put  at  the  time  as  a  known  occasion  for  testing  the 
fidelity  and  strengthening  the  virtue  of  the  finite 
spirit,  there  then  comes  out  an  unmistakable  spirit- 
ual behest  against  a  sensuous  appetite,  and  the  trial 
is  plainly  and  unavoidably  secured.  If  appetite  pre- 
vail, and  the  spirit  consent  to  serve  the  sense  in  such 
a  test,  there  can  be  no  apology  made,  that  the  highest 
possible  spiritual  obligations  were  not  pressed  upon 
the  conscience  for  the  preservation  of  its  purity  and 
integrity. 

4.  THE  DESTRUCTION  IN  SUBJECTING  THE  SPIRIT  TO  THE 
FLESH  SHOULD  BE  STRONGLY  ANNOUNCED.  —  The  good 
gained  in  holding  the  sense  subject  to  the  spirit  did  not 
need  to  be  formally  announced.  The  intimate  immedi- 
ate communion  with  God  and  his  fostering  presence 
with  the  first  pair  on  their  opening  consciousness  at 
creation,  secured  the  first  exercises  to  be  spiritual  con- 
fidence in  and  obedience  to  their  Creator.  The  daily 
life  had  the  consequent  peace  and  conscious  self-appro- 
bation, inseparable  from  this  original  trust  and  love. 
This  was  their  opening  experience,  all  tending  to- 
wards perseverance  and  confirmation  in  virtue.  But 
the  strong  guard  needed  'as  a  warning  was,  -the  dis- 
closure of  the  evil  necessary  upon  spiritual  subjec- 
tion to  sense.  The  terrible  consequences  of  yielding 


26  PRIMITIVE  TRIAL   OF  HUMANITY. 

to  excited  appetite,  and  taking  on  a  carnal  disposition, 
should  be  most  emphatically  announced  in  connection 
with  the  statements  appointing  the  trial.  Man's  de- 
basement and  defilement  in  the  indulgence  of  sense 
and  dethronement  of  reason,  and  God's  deep  abhor- 
rence of  such  moral  pollution,  are  required  vividly 
to  be  set  before  him. 

All  this  was  intended  and  effected  in  the  primeval 
threatening  to  man,  "  In  the  day  thou  eatest  thereof 
thou  shalt  surely  die."  The  act  of  self-indulgence 
would  carry  in  it  the  spirit's  consent,  and  fix  a  radical 
sensual  disposition.  Self-gratification  would  hence- 
forth be  dominant,  and  the  debasing  of  the  spirit  and 
depraving  of  the  character  become  entire  and  lasting. 
The  spirit  would  henceforth  be  in  bondage,  and 
though  still  the  alternative  to  persistence  in  sensu- 
ality, in  a  return  to  spiritual  recovery  and  supremacy, 
would  be  open,  yet  would  not  the  defiled  spirit  choose 
it,  but  would  basely  cleave  to  its  shameful  servitude. 
In  sinning,  it  goes  down  assenting,  and  then  has 
nothing  in  it  which  dissents  ;  and  so,  in  its  own  choice, 
its  bondage,  because  free,  is  final,  and  hopeless  of  all 
selfemancipation.  Such  was  the  helpless  and  dread- 
ful condition  disclosed  in  the  warning  against  trans- 
gression, and  was  all  involved  in  the  death  so  peremp- 
torily threatened.  The  bare  dissolution  of  the  body 
was  not  the  evil  primitively  intended  j  that  may  be  a 
sentence  subsequently  pronounced  in  mitigation  of 
the  first  threatening ;  the  warning  designed  in  it  was 
that  of  endless  shame  in  the  spirit  itself,  and  eternal 


PRINCIPLES  DETERMINING  THE  TRIAL.  27 

abhorrence  in  the  sight  of  God.  Nothing  was  arbi- 
trary in  the  trial  or  the  penalty,  but  all  ordered  and 
announced  in  kind  fidelity  to  human  interest,  and 
necessarily  putting  the  issue  upon  human  responsi- 
bility. 

b.  THE  CAPABILITIES  FOR  AN  ETERNAL  STATE  OF 
BLESSEDNESS  CAN  BE  ATTAINED  ONLY  IN  PASSING  THE 
HAZARD  OF  SUCH  TRIAL.  —  While  virtue  can  be  ac- 
quired and  confirmed  only  amid  conflicts  and  trials, 
so,  moreover,  the  very  use  of  the  immortal  faculties, 
freely  and  completely,  can  be  attained  only  in  the 
exercises  of  the  spiritual  life,  which  find  their  source 
directly  in  the  spiritual  disposition.  In  the  specula- 
tions followed  out  in  the  work  of  "  Creator  and  Crea- 
tion," we  found  life  to  be  an  instinctive  want  superin- 
duced upon  ethereal  forces,  and  thus  the  life  literally 
uses  the  light.  In  this  use  the  material  forces  are 
also  assimilated  and  organized  into  living  bodies. 
The  instinctive  life- want  builds  up  the  organisms  of 
the  Vegetable  kingdom,  and  in  further  completeness 
of  sentient  life  the  organisms  also  of  the  Animal  king- 
dom ;  and  only  by  the  control  of  the  rational  spirit 
can  the  "  fleshly  mind  "  be  disciplined  and  governed. 
The  human  spirit  controls  the  human  appetites,  and 
thereby  constitutional  inclinations  are  held  in  moral 
restraint.  And  as  this  subjects  the  mortal  body  to 
the  free  determinations  of  the  spirit,  so,  when  "  the 
mortal  shall  have  put  on  immortality,"  the  "  spiritual 
body  "  shall  much  more  be  subject  to  the  directions 


28  PRIMITIVE  TEIAL   OF  HUMANITY. 

of  the  reason ;  and  only  as  the  spirit  has  reigned  in 
time  can  the  resurrection-body  be  made  the  ready 
instrument  for  spiritual  employment  in  eternity. 

There  is  a  perpetual  balance  of  combined  forces, 
which  perpetuates  the  identity  of  the  individual  body 
amid  all  its  changes  of  elements  in  the  present  proba- 
tionary state,  and  this  will  be  still  held  in  balanced 
unity  by  the  comprehending  spirit  in  the  experiences 
of  eternity  ;  and  so  the  same  body  in  perduring  es- 
sence, which  was  ruled  by  the  spirit  here,  will  much 
more  be  the  spirit's  flexible  and  facile  instrument,  in 
the  world  of  triumphant  glory.  But  only  as  the 
spirit  has  ruled  the  flesh  on  earth,  can  it  control  the 
essential  organism  which  accompanies  it  in  eternity. 
Its  fleshly  sympathies  and  propensities  remain  when 
its  dissolved  and  cast-off  elements  are  left  behind ; 
and  these  will  go  earthward,  and  not  heavenward, 
if  not  guided  and  used  by  spiritual  affections.  The 
spirit  which  has  bowed  in  bondage  to  the  flesh  here, 
can  never  carry  the  resurrection-body  to  the  cen- 
tral source  of  light  and  glory  there.  The  employ- 
ments can  only  be  as  the  character  and  disposition 
of  the  spirit  permits.  In  the  distinctions  of  sensual 
and  spiritual  disposition  the  great  separating  gulf  is 
"  fixed." 


TEMPTATION   AND    FALL    OF   MAN.  29 


SECTION    II. 

THE   TEMPTATION  AND    FALL  OF  MAN. 

HUMANITY,  in  the  persons  of  the  first  man  and  wo- 
man, continued  for  a  time  in  allegiance  to  the  Crea- 
tor, and  the  sense  in  subjection  to.  the  spirit.  On 
the  part  of  God  were  paternal  care  and  nurture,  and 
on  the  part  of  man  were  confiding  docility  and  rev- 
erence. The  communion  between  them  was  as  Fa- 
ther and  children ;  and  as  the  parent  helps  the  child 
in  opening  speech  and  knowledge,  so  the  Lord  God 
brought  beast  and  fowl  to  Adam  "  to  see  what  he 
would  call  them,  and  whatsoever  Adam  called  every 
living  creature,  that  was  its  name."  The  abode  of 
man  was  prepared  by  God  as  a  Garden  in  a  warm 
climate  ;  and  dominion  was  given  to  him  over  all 
animals ;  and  the  herbs,  and  plants,  and  fruits  of 
Paradise  were  his  food.  The  occupation  of  the  first 
pair  was  the  dressing  and  keeping  the  garden  in 
which  they  dwelt. 

As  above  noticed,  it  is  most  reasonable  to  assume, 
that  during  the  period  of  human  innocence,  and  from 
before  till  the  temptation  of  Eve,  there  was  sin  in  no 
part  of  the  universe.  All  moral  beings  may  best  be 
considered  by  us  as  having  hitherto  stood  in  unbroken  & 


30  PRIMITIVE  TRIAL   OF  HUMANITY. 

loyalty  and  blessedness.  The  sacred  history  gives 
fair  intimation,  as  we  may  soon  note,  that  sin  began 
in  connection  with  the  trial  and  fall  of  humanity.  An 
older  and  higher  spirit  than  man  found  his  first  in- 
ducement to  sin,  in  connection  with  man's  creation 
and  God's  primeval  dealings  with  him.  Other  exalted 
spirits  were  induced  to  join  in  his  rebellion,  and  he 
also  was  the  direct  tempter  to  the  first  human  trans- 
A/  gression.  Ever  before  an  angel  of  light,  and  promi- 
nent among  the  heavenly  host  as  the  morning  star ; 
the  new  experience  opening  before  him  in  witnessing 
the  creation  in  flesh  and  blood  of  human  beings,  and 
of  a  grade  below  his  own,  and  they  yet  receiving  the 
special  intimacy  and  fostering  patronage  of  the  cre- 
ating Logos ;  and  especially,  if  we  suppose  him  to 
have  been  commissioned  by  the  Logos  to  watch  and 
serve  the  best  interests  of  these  first  parents  of  an 
inferior  race,  we  may  readily  see,  might  become  the 
provocative  to  feelings  of  envy,  and  jealousy,  and 
growing  hate  unknown  before  in  his  bosom ;  and 
which  at  length  induced  that  arrogant  ambition  and 
lifting  up  of  pride,  which  the  apostle  has  affirmed 
was  "  the  condemnation  of  the  devil."  The  malignity 
towards  man,  and  the  quenchless  spite  and  enmity 
towards  man's  Mediator,  everywhere  exhibited  sub- 
sequently by  fallen  angels  in  all  the  revelation  made 
concerning  them,  is  best  interpreted  through  such 
intimations,  as  that  their  depravity  originated  in 
their  new  acquaintance  with  this  lower  order  of 
moral  beings,  and  witnessing  their  Creator's  special 


TEMPTATION   AND   FALL   OF  MAN.  31 

interest  in  them,  and  perhaps  their  own  required 
ministry  to  them  But  we  follow  the  intimations  of 
the  introduction  of  sin  in  the  universe,  and  in  human- 
ity, through  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  trial,  tempta- 
tion, and  disastrous  fall  of  man. 

1.  THE  MANNER  IN  WHICH  ADAM  AND  EVE  WERE 
TEMPTED.  —  The  trial  of  man,  eventuating  in  his  first 
transgression,  had  all  its  particular  steps,  and  suc- 
cessive events,  as  actual  occurrences ;  but  the  mi- 
nute record  of  the  facts  have  not  been  given.  The 
inspired  account  by  Moses  is  general  and  summary, 
.particularizing  only  in  the  items  important  for  the 
instruction  of  future  generations.  This  account  in 
Genesis  is  not  to  be  interpreted  as  myth  or  fable  ; 
nor  yet  as  truth  in  poetic  figure  ;  but  as  veritable 
fact,  and  occurrence  according  to  sense-appearance 
and  apprehension.  Nothing  is  recorded  which  was 
not  phenomenally  observed ;  yet  many  of  the  ap- 
pearances have  a  deeper  truth  and  meaning  than 
was  recognized  by  the  human  agents  at  the  time, 
and  which  became  fully  disclosed  only  in  later 
periods.  The  serpent  was  the  tempting  agent  im- 
mediately appearing,  and  yet  the  prime  agency  of 
Satan  as  the  responsible  tempter,  invisibly  present, 
is  repeatedly  afterwards  noted.  As  up  to  this  period 
in  holy  allegiance,  the  devil  here  became  an  apostate 
and  rebel,  and  began  his  sinning  in  the  deception  and 
destructive  temptation  of  the  new-made  human  pair. 
It  is  to  these  specific  transactions  that  the  Saviour 


32  PRIMITIVE  TRIAL   OF  HUMANITY. 

refers  when  he  calls  the  devil  "  a  liar  and  the  father 
of  it,"  and  "a  murderer  from  the  beginning."1  And 
from  the  issue  of  this  successful  temptation  he  is  said 
to  have  "  the  power  of  death."  2  And  from  his  crafty 
use  of  the  serpent's  subtle  instrumentality  in  this 
deadly  work,  he  gets  the  emphatic  name  of  "  the 
Dragon,"  and  the  "  Old  Serpent." 3  All  these  are 
personal,  permanent  characteristics  of  the  devil,  as  if 
meant  to  indicate  that  he  began  to  be  a  devil  and 
satan,  a  deceiver  and  an  adversary,  in  these  very 
tempting  transactions ;  and  that  "  the  beginning " 
from  which  he  was  a  liar,  and  a  murderer,  was  in  the 
deceptive  and  destructive  work  of  the  temptation 
and  fall  at  man's  beginning.  The  perpetuated  malice 
of  fallen  spirits  towards  man,  and  the  malignant  en- 
mity towards  the  Saviour  of  men,  which  the  devil  so 
bitterly  exhibited  in  the  days  of  his  flesh,  and  the 
complete  destruction  of  the  works  of  the  devil  by  the 
Saviour  in  his  incarnation,  evince  a  one  great  con- 
flict, commencing  on  occasion  of  man's  creation,  and 
forever  settled  in  the  triumphant  issues  of  man's 
redemption. 

And  so  the  principle  in  the  parable  of  "  the  lost 
sheep "  has  here  its  broadest  application,  that  all 
heaven  rejoices  more  for  the  recovery  of  one  lost 
world,  than  for  all  others  that  have  needed  no  re- 
pentance. And  still  further,  the  one  short  but  ex- 
plicit declaration  is  given  by  the  apostle,  that  our 

r  John  viiL  44.  2  Heb.  ii.  14.  3  Rev.  xii.  9  and  xx.  2. 


TEMPTATION  AND   FALL  OF  MAN.  33 

redeemed  race  is  enough  to  vindicate  God  in  the  in- 
tegrity of  his  wisdom  before  the  Universe,  and  that 
the  mystery  of  Christ  was  "  to  the  intent  that  now 
unto  principalities  and  powers  in  heavenly  places, 
might  be  known,  by  the  church,  the  manifold  wisdom 
of  God." l  The  sin  of  devils  and  of  men  stands  in  one 
view  to  the  moral  universe  ;  and  the  redeemed  church 
of  human  believers,  through  Christ,  God  meant  should 
settle  his  truth  and  authority  in  dealing  with  all 
sinners. 

The  subtlety  of  the  serpent  in  its  power  of  fascina- 
tion seems  designed  to  represent  the  devil's  crafty 
insinuation  to  Eve,  and  here  with  Eve  was  the  devil's 
first  use  of  the  serpent's  instrumentality.  The  human 
victim  did  not  know  that  there  was  an  assault  from 
any  spiritual  adversary.  Later  revelations  determine 
that  the  responsible  agent  was  the  devil,  and  this 
serpent-like  power  of  fascination  had  here  its  earliest 
satanic  exhibition. 

It  is  remarkable  that  not  until  so  late  as  the  time 
of  Job,  and  then  successively  in  the  times  of  David, 
Ahab,  and  Jehoshaphat,2  do  we  have  any  recognition 
of  demoniac  interference  with  mankind.  The  ministry 
of  good  angels  was  abundant  in  the  age  of  the  Hebrew 
Patriarchs  ;  and  prohibitions  of  necromancy  and  witch- 
craft in  the  Mosaic  law  refer  to  the  spirits  of  dead  hu- 
man beings ;  but  not  till  beyond  the  writings  of  the 
Pentateuch  do  we  hear  of  fallen  angels.  This  is  quite 

1  Eph.  iii.  10.  2 1  Chron.  xxi.  1 ;  2  Chron.  xviii.  21,  22. 

3 


34  PRIMITIVE  TEIAL   OF  HUMANITY. 

conclusive  for  the  antiquity  of  these  books,  for  any 
writers  of  a  later  age  would  have  recognized  a  devil. 

2.  THE  PROCESS  AND  SUCCESS  OF  THE  DEVIL'S  TEMP- 
TATION. —  The  primitive  permission  and  prohibition  to 
man  was,  "  Of  every  tree  of  the  garden  thou  mayest 
freely  eat,  but  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil,  thou  shalt  not  eat  of  it ;  for  in  the  day  that 
thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die."1  The 
direct  and  kind  intent  of  God,  here,  was  to  set  the 
man  and  woman  directly  between  an  impulse  of  sense 
and  a  dictate  of  conscience,  giving  the  necessary  al- 
ternative to  either  a  sensual  or  a  spiritual  disposing, 
in  which  permanent  character  would  rest.  So  plain 
a  test,  and  the  act  so  deliberately  taken,  would  in- 
evitably carry  along  the  spirit  in  it,  and  become  a 
disposition  of  the  proper  selfhood  of  the  person  in  a 
governing  state  of  will,  henceforth  controlling  the 
subordinate  executive  volitions.  We  have  noted 
reasons  sufficient  for  believing  that  the  sin  of  the 
devil  originated  in  connection  with  the  trial  of  man, 
and  shall  further  on  find  still  more  conclusive  proof 
for  it ;  and  we  need  here  only  see  the  fitting  occasion 
for  trying  with  man  the  loyalty  of  other  than  human 
spirits.  Angels  are  not,  as  human  beings,  creatures 
of  sense,  and  could  not  be  tested  by  any  appeals  to 
sensual  appetite.  Their  selfhood  stood  directly  over 
against  other  personalities,  whether  of  fellow-crea- 
tures or  of  God,  and  their  trial  must  be  in  the  alterna- 

'Gen.  ii.  16,17. 


TEMPTATION  AND   FALL   OF  MAN.  35 

tive  of  subjecting  the  selfhood  to  the  clear  claims  of 
others,  or  arrogating  to  self  against  another's  right. 
Up  to  this  point,  we  may  believe,  all  had  subordinated 
self  to  others'  rights,  and  remained  holy ;  but  here  in 
man's  lower  state,  and  God's  requisition  in  behalf  of 
man,  opened  the  occasion  for  scorn,  and  jealousy,  and 
envy,  and  hate,  towards  man,  and  impatience,  and 
haughty  resistance,  and  even  arrogant  defiance, 
towards  God;  and  so  angels  stood  here  upon  their 
personal  responsibility,  as  well  as  men.  But  our  at- 
tention is  specially  to  man's  trial  and  its  reasonable- 
ness, leaving  the  devil's  tempting  interference  to  his 
own  responsibility. 

It  was  not  sinful  in  man  to  see  the  forbidden  fruit 
to  be  good  for  food,  nor  to  apprehend  it  as  desirable 
to  make  one  wise,  nor  yet  to  have  the  appetite  stimu- 
lated by  it ;  nor  any  more  was  it  yet  holiness  to  have 
the  conscience  excited  to  the  obligation  of  persistent 
integrity.  Such  awakened  impulse  of  sense  and  claim 
of  the  spirit  were  alike  necessary  in  the  case,  that 
there  might  be  probation  or  discipline.  This  quicken- 
ing of  appetite  and  of  conscience  in  conflict  was  con- 
ditional for  any  trial,  and  wholly  constitutional  on  the 
part  of  man.  But  at  just  this  point  opened  the  oc- 
casion for  temptation.  An  influence  from  a  malign 
source  might  here  be  intentionally  exerted  upon  the 
complex  agency  of  sense  and  spirit,  stimulating  the 
former  and  stupefying  the  latter,  and  thereby  intensi- 
fying the  discipline  and  augmenting  the  efficacy  of 
the  trial.  It  can  be  at  once  seen;  that  the  tempting 


36  PRIMITIVE   TRIAL   OF   HUMANITY. 

influence  must  be  at  the  responsibility  of  the  tempter  ; 
the  tempted  is  no  further  responsible  than  for  the  act 
of  resisting  or  yielding.  The  pressure  of  the  tempt- 
ing solicitation  upon  the  sensibility  brings  no  guilt  to 
the  tempted  till  the  spirit  yields  its  own  consent.  It 
only  becomes  an  occasion  for  more  firm  endurance  in 
"  letting  patience  have  its  perfect  work." 

The  devil  had  already  learned  human  nature  suf- 
ficiently to  calculate  the  hopeful  result  to  him,  in  in- 
flaming appetite  and  stifling  conscience ;  and  this 
process  he  most  cunningly  pursued,  that  thereby  he 
might  induce  a  perverse  disposition,  and  fix  the  race 
in  a  fallen  state  at  the  opening  experience  of  the  first 
progenitors.  .The  woman  was  the  more  susceptible 
and  the  less  suspicious,  and  he  carefully  directed  his 
approach  to  her  when  alone ;  and  although  now  his 
spirit  had  disposed  itself  in  malicious  enmity  to  God 
and  man,  and  was  secretly  and  artfully  plotting  the 
ruin  of  the  new  race,  yet  from  what  has  been  before 
seen  it  is  safe  to  assume,  that  here  was  his  first  overt 
act  of  rebellion  against  God,  and  determined  injury 
to  man.  The  first  angelic  sin  was  the  deviPs  tempt- 
ing, and  the  first  human  sin  was  the  woman's  listen- 
ing and  consenting.  On  the  devil's  approach,  he  had 
already  a  rebellious  and  malicious  purpose,  but  she 
was  loyal  and  innocent.  The  tempter's  first  aim  was 
to  remove  the  pressure  of  obligation  and  acquiescence 
to  authority,  by  suggesting  some  severity  and  over- 
strictness  in  the  just  announced  prohibition  of  the 
fruit  of  a  particular  tree.  This  was  skilfully  done 


TEMPTATION  AND   FALL   OP  MAN.  37 

with  the  least  possible  alarm  to  an  innocent  mind, 
awaking  no  suspicious  apprehensions,  yet  effectually 
lodging  the  insinuation  there  of  a  somewhat  rigorous 
exaction  on  the  part  of  God.  As  if  in  surprise  and 
doubt  whether  such  a  prohibition  could  have  been 
made,  he  asks,  "  Yea,  hath  God  said,  Ye  shall  not  eat 
of  every  tree  of  the  garden  "  ?  The  answer  of  the 
woman  clearly  evinces  that  the  poisonous  insinuation 
had  at  once  taken,  and  the  designed  course  of  thought 
and  feeling  had  been  already  started,  Yes,  we  may 
eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  trees  of  the  garden,  but  the  one 
conspicuous  tree  u  in  the  midst  of  the  garden  "  rs  for- 
bidden ;  "  ye  shall  not  eat  of  it,  neither  shall  ye  touch 
it,  lest  ye  die."  We  can  hardly  help  connecting  with 
these  words  an  impatient  look  and  querulous  tone, 
which  abundantly  evinced  a  discontented  spirit.  The 
tempter  could  have  had  little  hesitation  in  following 
up  his  purpose,  by  saying  to  such  a  ready  temper, 
"  Ye  shall  not  surely  die."  The  direct  contradiction 
to  God's  declaration  neither  shocked  the  woman's 
sensitiveness,  nor  dispelled  her  easy  delusion,  but 
rather  emboldened  her  rising  presumption. 

How  fully  prepared  had  Eve  now  become  for  the 
devil's  next  suggestion !  There  has  been  a  selfish- 
ness on  the  part  of  God,  that  has  made  him  unwill- 
ing you  should  attain  the  elevation  and  wisdom  you 
might,  lest  you  approach  his  position  too  nearly. 
"  God  doth  know  that  in  the  day  ye  eat  of  it,  then 
your  eyes  shall  be  opened,  and  ye  shall  be  as  gods, 
knowing  good  and  evil."  In  all  this  the  devil  at- 


38  PRIMITIVE   TRIAL    OF   HUMANITY. 

tained  what  he  wanted  in  stifling  conscience  and 
blinding  reason  to  authority,  by  awaking  hard 
thoughts  of  God,  a  vain  curiosity,  and  selfish  am- 
bition; and  then  the  fair  fruit  presented  to  her 
passionate  desire,  unchecked  by  spiritual  control, 
prompted  at  once  to  sensual  gratifications.  "  When 
the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was  good  for  food,  and 
that  it  was  pleasant  to  the  eyes,  and  a  tree  to  be 
desired  to  make  one  wise,  she  took  of  the  fruit  and 
did  eat." 

The  woman's  sin  made  her  at  once  the  tempter  of 
the  man.  Satan,  through  the  serpent,  had  finished  his 
temptation ;  he  retires,  and  the  woman  takes  up  his 
deceptive  work.  She  so  persuaded  Adam  that  he 
also  yielded.  "  She  gave  also  to  her  husband  with 
her,  and  he  did  eat."  As  in  every  sinful  gratifica- 
tion since,  so  here  in  the  first  transgression,  "  Lust, 
or  sensual  appetite,  when  it  hath  conceived,  bringeth 
forth  sin,  and  sin,  when  it  is  finished,  bringeth  forth 
death."1 

3.  THE  SIN  OF  MAN  WAS  WHOLLY  OF  HIS  OWN  ORIGI- 
NATION.—  The  devil  was  the  first  sinner,  and  his  sin, 
in  connection  with  the  opening  history  of  humanity, 
was  at  his  sole  responsibility.  His  defiance  of  God 
and  malice  towards  man  make  his  tempting  act  al- 
together another  and  darker  sin  than  the  forbidden 
gratification  of  sense  by  his  victim.  The  curse  upon 
the  serpent  race  is  to  be  taken  as  the  index  of  God's 

1  James  i.  15. 


TEMPTATION  AND  FALL  OP  MAN.  39 

direct  retribution  upon  the  devil  as  the  responsible 
agent.  His  first  sin  was  not  man's  sin,  though  in 
close  connection  with  it.  The  malicious  temptation 
was  demoniac ;  the  yielding  to  sense-gratification  was 
human ;  and  sin  entered  humanity  in  the  latter  only, 
not  at  all  in  the  former.  Other  spirits  with  the  devil, 
and  through  his  instigation,  followed  in  rebellion 
against  God  and  malignity  towards  man;  and  the 
terrible  conflict  here  began  between  man's  tempter 
and  man's  Deliverer  that  is  finally  to  issue  in  the 
destruction  of  the  devil  and  his  designs;  but  the 
fall  of  humanity  was  sense-gratification  against  con- 
scious obligation. 

The  first  human  sin  was  woman's,  incipiently  in 
her  listening  and  leaning  to  temptation,  and  fully  con- 
summated in  the  outer  act  of  eating  the  fruit  which 
God  and  conscience  prohibited.  The  sin  of  inducing 
Adam  was  Eve's,  but  that  of  assenting  and  eating  was 
his,  and  in  the  deliberate  transgressions  of  both  the 
entire  humanity  was  ruined.  Conjunct  humanity, 
created  male  and  female,  conjointly  sinned  and  de- 
based itself  in  its  primitive  stock.  The  spirit  sub- 
jected itself  to  the  sense  by  its  own  act.  Its  trial 
was  a  necessity  in  the  case  itself,  and  required  as  a 
special  formal  arrangement  by  the  best  interest  of 
man  and  the  benevolence  of  God ;  paternally  super- 
vised and  ordered  by  Jehovah,  in  a  way  that  opened 
the  best  and  freest  occasion  conceivable  for  confirma- 
tion in  virtue,  and  yet  eventuating  in  a  sensual  in- 
stead of  a  spiritual  disposition.  The  essence  of  the 


40  PRIMITIVE  TRIAL   OF  HUMANITY. 

sin  and  fall  of  humanity  was  in  this  primitive  dis- 
posing of  itself  upon  the  end  of  sense-gratification ; 
and  this  could  not  be  from  any  other  agency  than  the 
human  itself.  The  devil  did  not,  and  could  not  do  it, 
for  humanity  ;  God  did  not  originate  it ;  man  only  did 
or  could  make  himself  a  sinner.  The  mystery  of  ori- 
ginal sin  does  not  lie  in  the  subject  who  committed  it, 
but  in  the  Creator  who  made  the  being  capable  of 
originating  it.  And  this  can  find  its  solution  only  in 
the  consideration  that,  to  have  beings  capable  of  vir- 
tue, involves  also  capability  of  sinning ;  and,  as  reason 
demands  the  former,  it  must,  even  in  sadness  for  the 
issue,  leave  the  door  open  to  the  latter. 


SECTION  III. 

THE  CHANGES  INDUCED    BY  THE  SIN  OF  MAN. 

SIN  has  entered  humanity  and  debased  it,  and  in 
connection  with  man  sin  has  also  first  reached  the 
world  of  higher  spirits,  and  the  ruin  is  both  wide- 
spread and  dreadful.  How  God  deals  with  lost  angels 
we  do  not  here  inquire,  although  as  their  sin  was  in 
connection  with  his,  so  there  is  full  evidence  that 
God's  dealings  with  man  were  designed  to  throw  their 
influence  upon  other  worlds.  God's  moral  -universe 
is  one  as  truly  as  the  material,  and  what  occurs  in  one 


CHANGES  INDUCED   BY  MAN'S  SIN.  .41 

part  is  to  have  its  bearing  on  others ;  and  to  angelic 
spirits,  confirmed  in  virtue  or  fallen,  the  field  of  hu- 
manity is  doubtless  more  fully  in  their  view,  than  the 
spheres  in  which  they  move  are  to  us  mortals.  We 
therefore  cannot  learn  from  them,  as  they  learn  from 
God's  way  with  us;  but  to  us,  gleams  of  revealed 
light  disclose  that  good  angels  rejoice  in  man's  recov- 
ery, and  sinful  angels  are  confounded  at  his  redemp- 
tion. Principalities  and  powers  in  heavenly  places 
read  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God  in  what  through 
long  ages  he  is  doing  for  his  Church,  and  for  the  lost 
world  in  the  extension  of  his  mediatorial  kingdom. 
The  single  world  of  human  inhabitants  is  a  spectacle 
for  all  intelligences. 

But  while  we  leave  other  worlds  to  learn,  as 
they  may  and  do,  from  God's  interpositions  towards 
us,  we  turn  with  strong  and  saddened  interest  to  con- 
template the  changes  which  the  introduction  of  man's 
sin  has  induced.  The  very  knowledge  of  the  fact 
carries  wide  changes  with  it.  The  conscious  sinner 
is  debased  and  ashamed  in  his  own  conviction  ;  and  a 
disturbing  blast  spreads  through  the  rank«s  of  those 
yet  steadfast.  No  moral  personality  stands  as  he  be- 
fore did.  That  has  come  in  which  all  know  ought  not 
to  have  been ;  and  conscious  feelings  and  solicitudes 
arise  which  were  never  stirred  before.  A  loathing 
and  abhorring  of  the  intruding  abomination  seizes 
upon  all  the  good,  who  would  fain  repel  the  moral 
pollution  from  all  approach  to  them.  Anxiety  arises 
as  to  what  is  to  come  of  it,  and  how  God  will  deal 


42  PRIMITIVE  TRIAL   OF  HUMANITY. 

with  it;  while  the  remorse  and  forebodings  of  the 
guilty  are  still  more  direful.  God  himself  is  so  affect- 
ed by  it  that  he  cannot  stand  towards  his  creation  as 
when  no  sin  was  in  it.  The  change  is  universal  and 
deplorable,  and  no  good  being  can  contemplate  the 
sin  and  its  consequences  without  rebuke  and  displeas- 
ure. We  shall  note  these  changes  more  in  detail, 
having  reference  to  the  parties  affected. 

1.   CHANGES  ON  THE  PART  OP  THE  FALLEN  MAN  AND 
WOMAN. 

1.  Tlie  radical  change  is  the  domination  of  sense 
over  spirit.  —  The  gratification  of  the  forbidden  appe- 
tite was  not  a  passionate  impulse,  suddenly  breaking 
out  in  vehement  intensity,  and  surprising  to  a  desul- 
tory assent  while  the  radical  disposition  was  itself 
unchanged,  but  it  carried  the  assent  of  the  spirit,  and 
so  the  perversion  of  the  disposition,  along  with  it.  It 
had  been  a  deliberate  rejection  of  a  conscious  spirit- 
ual claim  and  a  purposed  acceptance  of  sensual  indul- 
gence as  the  chosen  good,  and  such  a  disposing  of  the 
spirit  fixed  its  voluntary  state  and  settled  into  perma- 
nent personal  character.  This,  is  the  comprehensive 
change  in  Adam  and  Eve ;  they  have  become  carnally- 
minded  ;  persistently  inclined  towards  sense-indul- 
gence, and  a  renunciation  of  the  self-respect  and 
conscious  peace  which,  spiritual  ascendency  perpetu- 
ates. The  animal  part  of  humanity  tyrannizes  over 
the  rational,  and  the  spirit  consents  to  the  servitude, 
while  every  fresh  indulgence  leaves  the  spirit  poor  and 


CHANGES  INDUCED   BY  MAN'S  SIN.  43 

empty,  and  so  fleeing  from  one  gratification  to  another 
in  constant  unrest,  continually  deluded,  and  necessa- 
rily never  satisfied.  And  such  a  soul  has  already  in 
it  the  baseness,  malignity,  and  desperate  hate  and 
enmity  infused  by  the  depraved  spirit.  There  needs 
only  the  check  and  stern  rebuke  of  righteous  author- 
ity,'and  the  "earthly  and  sensual"  soul  will  manifest 
in  the  fisndishness  of  its  spirit  that  it  is  also  "  devil- 
ish." The  entire  selfhood  is  alien  from  God,  and  de- 
termined solely  to  self-serving  and  indulging. 

2.  Self-respect  and  divine  trust  has  changed  to  shame 
and  fear.  —  The  spirit  knows  its  own  baseness  in  con- 
senting to  serve  the  flesh,  and  in  this  is  essentially  the 
blended  shame  and  remorse  of  a  guilty  conscience.  The 
spirit  infuses  its  own  bitterness  into  the  sentient  soul, 
and  bites  back  in  self-torment  with  every  repeated  in- 
dulgence. The  new  gratification  stings  with  a  new 
conviction  of  vileness.  and  awakens  also  the  fore- 
boding fears  of  deserved  retributions  about  to  come. 
The  intrinsic  excellency  and  dignity  of  the  spirit, 
standing  in  personal  responsibility  and  integrity, 
Adam  and  Eve  have  both  manifestly  lost.  They  con- 
sent to  give  up  personal  prerogative  and  free  self- 
possession  and  full  responsibility  for  what  they  know 
to  have  been  respectively  their  own  acts,  and  which 
personal  prerogative  is  above  all  price,  and  both 
admit  that  they  have  let  another  control  them.  "  The 
woman  whom  thou  gavest  to  be'  with  me,  she  gave  me 
of  the  tree,  and  I  did  eat,"  says  Adam ;  and  "  the  ser- 
pent beguiled  me,  and  I  did  eat,"  says  Eve ;  and  so 


44  PRIMITIVE  TRIAL   OF  HUMANITY. 

both  plead  the  baseness  of  renouncing  their  own  self- 
hood as  an  excuse  for  their  sinful  sensuality.  In  all 
that  ennobles  personal  action  and  character  they  have 
confessedly  changed,  and  they  manifestly  carry  with 
them  the  consciousness  of  their  degradation,  and  are 
their  own  witnesses  to  the  world  of  their  folly,  guilt, 
and  madness.  For  self-approbation  and  universal  re- 
spect they  have  taken  self-reproach,  divine  displeasure, 
and  the  contempt  even  of  the  devil,  their  deceiver, 
and  they  still  anticipate  worse  yet  to  come. 

3.  They  have  fallen  to  a  state  of  impotence  and  hope- 
lessness. —  The  free  perversion  of  their  disposition 
determines  this.  The  spiritual  is  supernatural,  and 
should  control  the  sense,  which  is  nature.  Where 
there  is  only  sense,  from  the  necessary  connections 
of  cause  and  effect,  the  strongest  impulses  to  gratifi- 
cation must  prevail ;  but  the  endowment  of  man  with 
the  rational,  which  is  spiritual,  takes  his  agency  out 
of  the  necessities  of  cause-and-effect  connections,  and 
capacitates  to  resist  the  impulses  of  appetite,  and 
yield  to  the  imperatives  of  reason  and  integrity  of 
spirit.  Brute-will  has  no  freedom,  and  must  follow  the 
stronger  appetite ;  but  human  will  is  in  liberty,  and 
should,  as  it  can,  comply  with  the  claim  to  self-respect 
and  moral  worthiness.  In  the  case  of  our  first  par- 
ents, the  will  has  already  yielded,  and  the  personal 
spirit  has  taken  self-gratification  as  the  end  of  life, 
and  so  has  basely  bowed  to  the  flesh  and  become  car- 
nal ;  and  the  carnal  mind,  restrained  and  rebuked,  be- 
comes malignant,  implacable,  and  incorrigible.  The 


CHANGES   INDUCED    BY   MAN'S   8JJK  OF4SHE 

K  •»*+•.       .JJNIVEKSITY, 

perverse  inclination  or  bent  of  the  soulixpecpmes  ~ 


and  steadfastly  fixed  by  the  disposition 
given  to  it,  and  in  its  own  way  persists  in 
plishment  of  its  own  purpose.  The  whole  energy  is 
intent  in  this  one  direction,  and  it  has  made  itself  im- 
patient to  action  in  another  direction,  and  therein  it 
has  become  hopeless  to  any  self-recovery.  It  chooses 
madness  and  folly,  and  will  not  seek,  and  so  cannot  / 
find,  the  paths  of  wisdom.  The  man  has  enslaved 
himeelf  in  his  self-determined  degradation  to  sense, 
'and  his  self-restoration  to  his  abdicated  dominion  over 
the  flesh  is  most  hopeless.  His  very  liberty  lapses  in 
chosen  impotence, 

2.  THERE  WERE  CHANGES  TOWARDS  MAN  ON  THE  PART 
OF  GOD. 

1.  There  was  manifested  deep  disapprobation.  —  Till 
now  there  had  been  nothing  to  move  divine  displeas- 
ure ;  but  immediately  upon  the  fall  came  God's  ar- 
raignment and  conviction  of  the  guilty.  Their  own 
consciousness  of  the  shameful  change  made  them 
attempt  to  hide  from  his  authoritative  arrest,  and 
forced  to  the  acknowledgment  of  fear  and  naked- 
ness, which  was  itself  a  clear  disclosure  and  confes- 
sion of  sin,  and  was  followed  at  once  by  stern,  vindic- 
tive retribution.  God  is  Absolute  Reason,  and  his 
treatment  of  a  sinner  must  be  reasonable  exactly.  No 
passionate  anger  may  be  on  one  side,  nor  fond  indul- 
gence on  the  other.  The  exposed  shameful  guilt  of 
man  was  regarded  by  God  with  precisely  deserved 


46  PRIMITIVE  TRIAL   OF  HUMANITY. 

abhorrence.  There  was  admitted  nothing  of.  pallia- 
tion in  the  apologies  presented.  The  disobedience 
had  been  wholly  inexcusable,  and  the  sensuality  was 
strictly  condemned  just  in  accordance  with  its  exact 
demerit.  The  man  and  the  woman  had  each  the  same 
disposition  which  would  gratify  appetite  at  the  ex- 
pense of  conscious  disapprobation,  and  God  revealed 
his  equitable  hatred  of  it. 

2.  There  was  paternal  compassion.  —  The  change, 
just  noticed,  from  precedent  approbation  to  subse- 
quent disapprobation,  had  also  this  important  modifi- 
cation, that  it  was  the  disapprobation  of  a  friend  ex- 
clusive of  all  enmity.  God  was  still  their  Father, 
though  they  had  lost  the  disposition  of  children; 
hence  the  deep  disapprobation  was  mingled  with 
deep  paternal  pity.  They  were  the  creatures  of  his 
power,  and  their  being  had  its  source  in  his  creative 
will,  and  there  was  more  and  other  than  sovereignty 
offended ;  there  was  fatherly  goodness  grieved ;  and 
this  last  could  only  find  an  expression  in  ways  of 
compassionate  regard.  The  strict  condemnation  for 
violated  authority  had  with  it  also  the  yearning  of 
fatherly  tenderness.  There  was  no  extenuation  of 
man's  guilt  in  the  acquired  carnal  disposition,  nor 
any  allowance  for  it,  as  if  it  had  been  an  unfortunate 
calamity  merely,  and.  not  determined  apostasy ;  but 
with  all  the  known  guilt  and  debasement,  there  was 
the  pity  which  prompted  to  the  interposition  of  all 
that  might  help  the  case,  or  open  any  measures  of 
relief  and  deliverance.  The  very  Reason,  which  in 


CHANGES  INDUCED   BY  MAN'S  SIN.  47 

its  own  end  had  made  and  tried  humanity  precisely 
as  it  behooved  reason  to  do,  and  which  was  saddened 
by  man's  delinquency  and  apostasy,  moved  to  com- 
miseration in  even  its  intense  disapprobation. 

3.  From  this  displeasure  and  compassion  came  the 
purpose  of  redemption.  —  God  was  both  offended 
Sovereign  and  compassionate  Father,  and  the  sin  of 
man  put  this  double  relation  of  God  to  him  in  such 
conflict  that  both  could  not  peacefully  stand  together. 
The  former  demanded  justice,  the  latter  asked  mercy. 
Absolute  Reason  alone  saw  in  its  profoundest  depths 
the  one  way  to  put  them  both  in  harmony.  As  Sove- 
reign he  abhors  and  condemns,  as  Father  he  pities 
and  would  spare ;  and  he  can  stand  to  man  in  no  posi- 
tion which  can  abolish  this  double  relation.  What 
Absolute  Reason,  must  find,  for  his  own  tranquillity  in 
view  of  man's  apostasy,  is  some  expedient  to  mark 
his  sovereign  abhorrence  of  sin.  together  with  the  full 
flow  of  fatherly  compassion  for  the  sinner  ;  and  in  the- 
disturbance  which  sin  everywhere  introduces,  even 
within  the  bosom  of  Absolute  Reason  himself,  we  may 
well  expect  the  plan  of  human  Redemption  to  be  a 
mystery  too  deep  for  the  race  to  receive,  until  many 
of  its  generations  pass  through  special  processes  of 
divine  instruction. 

The  indications  in  inspired  Scripture  are  clear,  that 
antecedently'  to  man's  creation,  in  the  eternal  ages, 
a  peculiar  relationship  was  purposed  between  the 
Logos,  as  Son  of  God,  and  the  humanity  yet  to  be 
constituted;  and  that  an  unprecedented  covenant 


48  PRIMITIVE   TRIAL    OF   HUMANITY. 

transaction,  on  the  part  of  the  Father  and  the  Son, 
sealed  to  the  Son  complete  satisfaction  for  a  coming 
travail  of  spirit  he  was  to  undergo,  in  the  possession 
of  a  seed  that  should  arise,  and  in  whose  prosperity 
the  pleasure  of  the  Lord  should  be  consummated.1 
But  if  our  first  parents  could  not  yet  apprehend  the 
presence  of  a  spiritual  tempter,  much  less  must  it 
be  possible  for  them  to  comprehend  the  coming  and 
work  of  a  Divine  Redeemer.  A  promise  was  given 
them  involving  the  certainty  of  some  coming  de- 
liverer, and  that  he  should  be  found  in  some  future 
"  seed  of  the  woman  ;  "  but  all  further  peculiarities  of 
character  and  work  were  left  to  the  progressive  un- 
folding of  prophecy  and  ritual  foreshadowing,  till  the 
actual  advent  and  work  of  the  Redeemer  should  plain- 
ly disclose  God's  method  of  "  peace  on  earth  and  good 
will  towards  men."  It  was  intimated  that  continual 
enmity  would  exist  between  man's  descendants  and 
the  serpent  race,  hereafter  to  be  interpreted  as  mean- 
ing the  devil's  hostility  to  man  and  man's  Redeemer, 
and  that  the  injury  on  one  side  would  be  severe,  and 
on  the  other  side  fatal.  "  I  will  put  enmity  between 
thee  and  the  woman,  and  between  thy  seed  and  her 
seed ;  it  shall  bruise  thy  head,  and  thou  shalt  bruise 
his  heel."  2  It  discloses  God's  attitude  to  man  to  be 
such  as  relieved  from  despair  and  opened  future 
hope ;  yet  the  promised  redemption  left  abundant 
tokens  of  divine  displeasure  at  man's  sin,  while  faint- 

'Isa.  liii.  2  Gen.  iii.  15. 


CHANGES  INDUCED   BY  MAN'S  SIN.  49 

ly  opening  the  light  of  God's  gracious  coming  inter- 
positions. 

4.  God's  open  communion  with  man  changed,  to  be 
only  through  mediation.  —  The  opening  a  way  of  re- 
demption ^opened  an  occasion  for  a  new  probation. 
The  first  trial  necessarily  stood  upon  equity,  giving 
an  even-handed  discipline  in  the  cultivation  of  spirit- 
ual integrity  and  the  control  of  sensual  appetite.  As 
this  failed,  eventuating  in  sensuality,  and  followed  by 
a  dispensation  of  grace  resting  upon  a  divine  inter- 
position, so  it  behooved  to  open  a  further  trial  for 
humanity  on  this  new  and  more  favored  footing.  But 
here  God  may  no  longer  permit  man  to  approach  him 
in  open  communion,  and  he  stand  to  his  fallen  and 
sensuous  creatures  with  unchanged  tokens  of  his 
former  satisfaction.  As  a  sinner,  God,  with  all  his 
compassion,  must  disapprove  and  rebuke  man  for  the 
carnal  disposition  he  cherishes,  and  refuse  an  immedi- 
ate communion  face  to  face  in  the  light  of  his  approv- 
ing smile.  This  was  signified  by  his  exclusion  from 
the  "tree  of  life,"  and  the  guard  of  flaming  cheru- 
bim which  barred  all  future  approach  to  its  fruit  from 
every  quarter.  God's  favor  is  life,  and  man,  spiritual- 
ly dead  in  his  carnal  disposing,  cannot  appropriate 
that  favor,  nor  taste  its  living  peace  and  joy.  He 
can  come  to  it  again  only  through  the  medium  of  the 
new  dispensation  of  Grace,  and  standing  before  God 
in  another's  name,  and  not  his  own.  His  prayer  and 
his  thanksgiving,  his  whole  worship  of  God  and  com- 
munion with  him,  must  now  be  only  through  faith  in 
4 


50  PRIMITIVE   TRIAL    OP   HUMANITY. 

the  promised  mode  of  pardon  and  reconciliation. 
Hence  so  soon  began  offerings  and  sacrifices;  and 
hence  the  clear  interpretation  of  God's  respect  to 
Abel's  sacrifice,  and  his  rejection  of  Cain's.  The 
former  looked  to  God  through  a  Mediator,  the  latter 
presumed  upon  the  direct  offering  of  his  own  gift. 

5.  God's  dealings  with  man  changed  to  blended  se- 
verity and  kindness.  —  A  determined  and  promised 
plan  of  redemption  afforded  an  adequate  ground  for 
God  to  mitigate  the  original  threatening,  and  confer 
much  positive  kindness,  while  putting  man  upon  a 
new  probation.  There  must  be  manifest  severity  in 
his  dealings,  to  enforce  the  conviction  of  his  displeas- 
ure against  their  depravity ;  and  this  immediately 
began,  by  driving  the  first  pair  from  the  prepared 
Paradise  which  had  been  theirs  in  their  innocence. 
The  open  world,  in  its  uncultivated  ruggedness,  re- 
ceived them,  and  its  thorns  and  thistles  blasted  and 
choked  the  vegetation  they  cultivated,  and  forced 
them  with  toil  and  sweat  to  eat  their  bread.  The 
mind  was  to  be  burdened  with  care,  and  the  body 
worn  with  labor ;  weariness,  pain,  and  sickness  must 
supervene  to  their  exposures  and  privations  till  at 
length  their  fleshly  tabernacle  should  fall  again  to 
the  dust  from  whence  it  had  been  taken.  In  all  this 
severity  there  is  not  the  retribution  in  strict  justice 
of  the  original  threatening  of  eternal  death,  and  yet 
it  is'  a  curse  which  even  in  a  gracious  administration 
makes  "  the  creation  groan  and  travail  together  in 
pain  until  now." 


CHANGES  INDUCED   BY  MAN>S  SIN.  51 

But  though  God  thus  manifested  his  abhorence  of 
their  sin,  there  were  many  ways  in  which  he  proved 
himself  placable  and  graciously  inclined  to  help  their 
wretchedness  and  restore  them  from  their  ruin.  Their 
deepest  suffering  was  yet  so  far  a  mitigation  of  their 
just  penalty  as  to  teach  them  clearly  that  by  so 
much  "  mercy  had  already  rejoiced  against  judg- 
ment/' and  that  in  their  very  misery  God  was  gra- 
cious still.  Many  good  things  were  left  for  their 
enjoyment.  Shut  out  of  Paradise,  but  yet  living  in 
a  world  of  many  offered  benefits ;  the  earth  yielded 
its  harvests,  though  only  through  toil,  and  the  brute 
bowed  his  neck  in  service,  though  more  stubbornly 
and  impatiently  than  before  the  fall.  The  sun  shone 
and  the  seasons  cheered,  and  social  life  offered  its 
gladness,  and  communion  with  God  was  permitted 
through  a  Mediator,  though  no  longer  face  to  face. 
Earth  was  a  wilderness  compared  with  Eden,  yet 
such  as  man  might  make  to  "  bud  and  blossom  as 
the  rose."  All  good  was  forfeited,  and  unmingled 
evil  deserved,  and  yet  direct  acts  of  kind  care  and 
help  from  God  awakened  hope  and  joy.  The  one 
recorded  interposition  where  "  the  Lord  God  made 
coats  of  skin  and  clothed  them," 1  had  much  more  in 
it  than  the  conferring  of  present  relief  and  comfort. 
It  told  them  plainly  of  God's  regard  for  their  welfare, 
and  spoke  strongly  in  present  consolation,  and  for 
future  expectation  of  further  bounty.  And  this  was 
doubtless  but  one  of  many  instances  of  paternal  minis- 

'Gen.  iii.  21. 


52  PRIMITIVE   TRIAL    OF   HUMANITY. 

tration  to  the  need  of  his  fallen  children  He  was  in 
it  dealing  with  them  in  kindness  and  pity,  not  in 
anger ;  his  own  hand  was  helping  them,  and  reveal- 
ing him  to  be  their  benefactor,  and  not  an  inexorable 
avenger. 

3.  CHANGES  IN  REGARD  TO  HUMANITY  IN  GENERAL. 

1.  After  his  fall  Adam  ceased  to  act  as  public  head 
of  his  race.  —  Had  the  first  parents  continued  spirit- 
ually disposed,  their  descendants  would  have  formed 
their  disposition  and  fixed  their  character  under  the 
conditions  which  the  parents  of  the  race  must  have 
induced  for  them,  and  which  could  then  have  been 
more  advantageous  for  holding  sense  subservient  to 
the  spirit  than  was  even  the  arrangement  made  for 
Adam.  The  body  would  have  been  "  put  under  and 
brought  into  subjection  "  by  both  man  and  woman ; 
God  would  have  communed  with  them  face  to  face ; 
all  would  have  been  tranquil  and  serene  within  and 
without ;  and  in  such  inner  and  outer  conditions,  it 
might  strongly  be  expected  that  the  successive  gen- 
erations of  the  race  would  open  their  moral  agency  in 
1  spiritual  integrity,  and  grow  more  confirmed  in  virtue. 
But  Adam's  sin  closed  irrevocably  all  such  opportune 
conditions.  The  ascendency  of  sense  has  put  his 
spirit  in  bondage,  and  all  such  favorable  prospective 
propagation  of  the  race  from  him  is  blasted.  The  first 
parents  now  stand  condemned  and  excuseless  ;  self- 
convicted  of  guilt,  and  subject  to  the  penalty  ;  and  if 
justice  be  allowed  its  course,  final  condemnation  must 


CHANGES  INDUCED   BY  MAN'S  SIN.  53 

immediately  ensue  ;  and  thus  at  once  would  come  the 
exclusion  of  any  posterity  by  the  infliction  of  eternal 
death  upon  the  first  sinners.  All  this  is  settled  for 
Adam  in  Adam's  first  transgression.  If  God  no\v,  as 
he  does,  provide  a  way  of  redemption,  and  by  this 
open  the  occasion  for  delay  of  punishment,  and  put 
Adam  upon  a  new  form  of  probation,  and  admit  the 
incoming  of  a  rising  race  of  descendants,  this  cannot 
reinstate  Adam  in  his  former  public  headship,  that 
he  may  act  again  for  them  as  he  necessarily  must  have 
done  in  his  first  trial.  His  fall  has  already  shut  up 
the  bowers  of  Paradise,  and  precluded  open  commun- 
ion with  heaven,  and  the  harmony  of  fleshly  appetite 
with  spiritual  rule ;  and  no  subsequent  act  of  his, 
under  any  form  of  governmental  administration,  can 
bring  these  advantages  back  for  his  posterity,  that 
they  may  begin  their  moral  agency  and  fix  their  dis- 
position and  character  under  these  favorable  influences 
once  offered  for  the  race. 

What  Adam  may  now  do  under  the  new  administra- 
tion of  Grace,  can  go  only  for  himself.  If  there  come 
repentance,  and  faith,  and  return  to  allegiance,  and 
thus  to  communion  again  with  God,  this  can  be  for 
himself  alone,  and  only  through  the  mediation  of  the 
new  covenant.  He  and  the  individuals  of  his  pos- 
terity must  each  hereafter  stand  upon  the  respon- 
sibilities of  personal  agency.  His  first  trial,  from  the 
necessity  of  the  case,  was  as  public  head  of  humanity  ; 
and  thus  in  itself  representative  and  determinative  of 
the  forming  conditions  of  character  for  all,  settling 


54  PRIMITIVE  TRIAL   OP  HUMANITY. 

once  and  forever  how  his  posterity  must  begin  their 
spiritual  agency,  and  under  what  conditions  they 
must  form  their  permanent  disposition ;  and  now  no 
other  act  of  his  can  reverse  the  first  trial,  or  begin  any 
new  trial  for  them. 

2.  Fallen  humanity  will  perpetuate  depravity  through 
the  race.  —  Man's  trial  has  been  the  most  favorable  for 
virtuous  integrity  possible,  and  the  fact  of  his  fall  has 
left  no  other  way  open  for  a  rising  posterity  but 
through  a  gracious  provision  of  redemption,  which 
puts  man  upon  a  new  probation,  where  each  person 
must  be  held  liable  for  his  own  spiritual  disposing. 
In  all  this  there  has  been  nothing  arbitrary,  but  it  is 
just  what  it  should  be  to  satisfy  reason.  To  neither 
God  nor  man  can  any  other  way  be  so  well,  and  yet 
in  just  this  moral  arrangement  for  the  race,  it  will 
occur  that,  through  human  perversion  of  the  best 
and  most  gracious  provisions,  depravity  will  be  propa- 
gated through  all  generations.  The  first  sinners,  left 
to  their  own  way,  though  with  capacities  and  under 
obligation  to  reform  and  restore  the  spirit  to  its  right- 
ful rule  over  sense,  yet  will  never  accomplish  it. 
In  their  lapsed  disposition  is  the  will  reluctating 
against  the  return  to  spirituality,  and  which  per- 
petuates the  depravity  in  them ;  and  such  lapse  of 
the  spirit  under  the  dominion  of  the  flesh  has  given 
the  sense  an  ascendency  and  advantage,  and  has  so 
aggravated  and  intensified  its  habitual  control,  that 
the  physical  propagation  of  the  sense  in  the  descend- 
ants will  carry  its  inordinate  carnal  influences  along 


CHANGES  INDUCED   BY  MAN'S  SIN.  55 

with  it.  These  will  be  of  sufficient  prevalent  im- 
pulse in  every  descendant,  on  the  first  originating  of 
moral  agency,  to  induce  the  spirit  to  yield  to  the 
sense,  and  fix  the  assenting  disposition  on  the  ends  of 
the  fleshly  gratification,  to  the  rejection  of  spiritual  (/ 
integrity.  The  first  agency  in  moral  personality  will 
thus  be  as  certainly  perverse  in  the  posterity,  as  the 
subsequent  acts  of  the  first  sinner  in  the  fallen  ances- 
tor will  continue  carnally  apostate.  The  moving  im- 
pulses of  the  vitiated  sensibility  will  be  alike  in  the 
sinning  progenitor  and  the  new  offspring,  the  state  of 
the  spirit  alone  being  different. 

With  the  sinning  parent,  the  flesh  has  its  aggra- 
vated lusts,  and  moreover  the  spirit  has  already  con- 
sented and  bowed  beneath  its  bondage,  and  the 
disposed  will  has  nothing  in  it  for  reversing  the 
depraved  disposition;  with  the  propagated  descend- 
ant, the  flesh  has  all  the  aggravated  lusting  impulses 
of  the  fallen  parent,  but  the  superinduced  reason,  as 
personal  spirit,  has  not  yet  succumbed  to  the  domina- 
tion of  appetite,  and  become  perverted  spirit.  This 
spiritual  disposition  the  child  must  first  set  within 
itself  ere  it  shall  take  the  sinful  character  of  the 
fallen  parent ;  and  thus  it  is  true  of  every  descendant 
of  fallen  Adam,  that  it  is  his  own  disposing  which 
fixes  in  him  the  carnal  disposition  of  Adam,  while  his 
intensated  sense  impulses  follow  the  law  of  social  / 
liabilities  in  physical  propagation.  The  appetites 
have  the  aggravations  of  the  fallen  parent,  but  the 


56  PRIMITIVE   TRIAL    OF   HUMANITY. 

rational  spirit  must  consent  to  be  in  servitude  to 
them,  before  the  character  can  become  sinfully  apos- 
tate, as  is  that  of  the  sinning  parent. 

In  this  way  it  is  true  that  every  descendant  of 
Adam  has  his  own  trial,  and  fixes  his  own  disposition 
in  his  own  consent  to  carnal  servitude  ;  yet  the  neces- 
sary consequences  of  the  trial  and  fall  of  the  first 
sinner  of  the  race  make  this  free  and  responsible  dis- 
posing a  matter  of  certainty,  that  it  will  be  a  per- 
verse disposing.  The  aggravated  appetites  follow 
natural  law  in  physical  generation,  and  the  spiritual 
disposing  which  might  be,  and  ought  to  be,  in  sub- 
jecting sense  with  all  its  aggravated  lusting,  yet  cer- 
tainly will  be  in  basely  yielding  to  sensual  indulgence. 
A  vitiated  constitutional  propensity  to  pilfer,  known 
as  kleptomania,  sometimes  manifests  itself  as  with 
great  difficulty  restrained  and  subjected ;  a  child  of 
a  confirmed  inebriate  sometimes  inherits  the  vitiated 
impulse  known  as  oinornania,  which  makes  a  life  of 
sobriety  hardly  attainable  ;  still  in  each  case  the  pro- 
pensity can  be  restrained  by  a  virtuous  resolution  ; 
so  the  vitiated  sensibility  diffused  from  Adam  through 
humanity  goes  down  to  the  children  through  the 
flesh,  and  not  through  the  rational  spirit,  and  in  this 
case  we  learn  both  from  revelation  and  experience, 
that  all  begotten  of  Adam,  to  a  certainty,  give  the 
spirit  over  in  bondage  to  this  carnal  lusting,  if  left  of 
God  to  their  own  disposing. 

This  sense-pravity  is  vitium,  and  not  peccatum;  but 


CHANGES   INDUCED    BY   MAN'S   SIN.  57 

as  it  originated  ID  the  personal  disposing  of  the  spirit 
in  bondage  to*  sense  by  our  first  parents,  and  the 
vitiation  beginning  in  them  is  perpetuated  through 
their  posterity,  and  is  now  in  human  nature,  not  as 
created,  but  as  perverted  in  the  first  transgression,  it 
is  truly  originate  vitmm  ;  while  the  original  sinning 
act,  from  which  the  vitium  sprang,  is  originate  pecca- 
tum.  When,  in  theology,  we  speak  of  original  sin,  we 
must  distinguish  between  vitium  and  peccatum,  and 
apply  sinful  desert  to  the  forming  disposition  which 
in  each  descendant  follows  his  originally  vitiated 
sensibility.  While,  then,  a  natural  ability  for  dis- 
posing the  spirit  to  the  firm  suppression  and  control 
of  the  vitiated  sense,  is  still  with  the  spirit  itself, 
and  the  obligation  rests  upon  every  descendant  of 
Adam  so  to  do,  yet  the  pravity  of  sense  following 
the  first  sin  gives  certainty,  that  what  might  be  and 
should  be  done  will  yet  not  be  done,  in  any  case,  by 
self-movement.  All  are  naturally  liable  to  the  neces- 
sary consequences  of  the  progenitor's  vitiated  sensu- 
ality, but  each  is  responsible  morally  only  for  his  w 
perversion  of  his  own  spirit.  Here  is  no  semi-pela- 
gianism,  as  if  the  connection  of  the  first  sin  and  all 
subsequent  sin  were  cut  half  in  twain  ;  nor  any  neces- 
sity for  action  in  a  pre-existing  state  to  save  personal 
freedom ;  but  a  connection  -of  certainty  in  freedom, 
that  as  Adam  vitiated  sense,  so  all  his  posterity  will 
deprave  their  disposition,  and  "  go  astray  as  soon  as 
they  be  born. 


58  PRIMITIVE  TRIAL   OP   HUMANITY. 

3.  Redemption  assumes  this  universal  certainty  of  a 
sinning  race.  —  What  the  plan  of  Redemption  is  we 
shall  further  on  better  see ;  but  we  can  here  know  that 
all  prospective  dealing  in  mercy  with  the  race  is  on 
the  assured  ground  that  all  will  need  the  gracious  in- 
terposition. To  God,  at  the  first,  this  was  certain  so 
soon  as  Adam  sinned,  and  that  the  recovery  of  none 
could  be  effected  but  by  grace,  and  their  allegiance 
confirmed  anew  but  by  a  divine  redemption.  The 
first  Promise  that  the  seed  of  the  woman  should 
bruise  the  serpent's  head,  while  the  seed  of  the  ser- 
pent should  bruise  the  heel  only  of  humanity,  was 
applicable  to  all,  and  carried  in  it  the  divine  testi- 
mony that  the  consequences  of  the  fall  went  down  to 
coming  ages,  parallel  with  that  deliverance  which 
was  designed  to  reach  all  ages.  And  so,  also,  the 
curses  upon  man  and  woman,  spoken  originally  to 
Adam  and  Eve,  were  yet  inclusive  of  all  their  de- 
scendants, inasmuch  as  the  certainty  of  their  sinning 
would  involve  their  certain  desert  as  truly  as  in  the 
case  of  the  first  transgressors.  The  posterity  did  not 
actually  sin  in  Adam's  sin,  but  they  take  naturally 
and  necessarily  Adam's  vitiated  sensibility,  and  un- 
der this  comes  the  certain  voluntary  disposing  of 
the  spirit  in  subjection  to  the  flesh.  They  have  no 
personal  responsibilities  for  his  act,  but  as  natural 
descendants  they  have  all  the  liabilities  to  the  nat- 
ural consequences  of  such  act,  and  must  of  necessity 
dispose  their  spirit  and  fix  their  own  character  under 
the  consequent  conditions  of  Adam's  act.  The  as- 


CHANGES   INDUCED   BY  MAN'S  SIN.  59 

sumption  of  the  certainty  of  their  sinning  is  not  that 
they  are  made  sinners  by  any  other,  and  only  the 
fore-affirming  of  the  fact,  that  through  the  aggrava- 
tions of  the  vitiated  sense  they  will  all  make  them- 
selves to  be  sinners.  The  vitium  is  natural,  the 
pecoatum  is  moral  and  personal. 

4.  The  first  trial  failing,  a  remedial  system  must 
stand  on  "  better  promises." —  Paternal  kindness  seeks 
deliverance  for  lost  humanity,  and  changes  the  mode 
of  administering  discipline  to  the  race,  and  this  mode 
must  have  advantages  over  the  former,  and  include 
stronger  influences  for  virtue,  in  order  to  justify 
its  introduction.  Why  even  divine  pity  attempt 
anything  further,  if  there  is  not  ground  for  higher 
encouragement  than  in  the  failing  administration  ? 
God  must  uphold  the  integrity  of  his  own  char- 
acter, in  having  arranged  a  mode  of  trial  which 
has  failed,  and  must  find  weightier  motives  on  the 
side  of  a  spiritual  disposing  and  control  over  sense, 
than  the '  first  arrangement  offered ;  in  which  case 
nothing  will  hinder  his  fatherly  love  in  changing  his 
dealings  with  man  from  the  demands  of  equity  to  the 
solicitations  of  compassion. 

Inasmuch  as  we  find  the  race  perpetuated  and  mul- 
tiplying its  generations  over  the  earth,  and  as  we 
find  patience  prolonged  and  grace  sparing  the  con- 
victed and  condemned,  we  are  obliged  to  conclude 
that  God  has  in  some  way  vindicated  his  name  and 
authority,  and  put  intenser  impulses  at  work  to 
bring  the  spirit  over  the  flesh,  and  therein  finally 


60  PRIMITIVE   TRIAL   OF  HUMANITY. 

justifying  himself  to  every  conscience,  in  his  won- 
derful, and  wholly  otherwise  unprecedented,  remedial 
measures  for  lost  man's  redemption.  This  remedial 
administration  immediately  supervened  upon  the  first 
apostasy,  and  a  history  thence  opens  full  of  hope  for 
man,  and  of  interest  and  astonishment  for  other  orders 
of  spirits ;  and  which,  in  fact,  must  reveal  the  secret 
counsel  and  purpose  of  God  in  peopling  our  earth, 
and  settling  upon  it  a  race  of  flesh  and  blood,  and 
yet  endowed  with  the  prerogatives  of  rationality. 
We  know,  at  the  start,  that  this  history  must  bring 
out  God's  vindication  of  wisdom  and  righteousness 
in  his  way  of  saving  the  lost ;  and  we  shall  not  better 
comprehend  how  this  can  be,  than  by  noting  the  long 
providential  interpositions,  which  have  taught  the  na- 
tions how  God  has  put  his  hand  into  human  history, 
for  the  redemption  of  the  race  from  sensuality,  to 
pure  spiritual  integrity  and  dignity.  The  degrada- 
tion of  mankind  is  so  deep,  that  long  centuries  of  dis- 
cipline and  instruction  scarcely  suffice  to  bring  the 
race  to  know  and  choose  the  only  method  of  recovery. 
We  are  to  study  the  history  as  God's  development  of 
his  own  plan  of  salvation  for  man. 


SPECIAL    PROVIDENCES   CUBBING   DEPRAVITY.          61 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    REDEEMER    MUST    PREPARE    HUMANITY 
FOR   HIS   COMING   INCARNATION, 

THE  fall  of  man  has  left  him  in  a  state  of  degrada- 
tion and  ruin,  from  which  there  is  nothing  in  human- 
ity to  effect  deliverance.  The  carnal  mind  will  never 
from  itself  return  to  its  spiritual  subjection,  nor  can 
the  human  spirit  ever  atone  for  its  wilful  sensuality. 
Another  than  man  must  come  to  men,  and  work  out 
their  deliverance,  and  the  moving  spring  and  efficient 
execution  for  this  can  nowhere  be  found,  but  in  the 
abhorrence  for  sin  and  pity  for  the  sinner  which  is 
in  God  himself.  We  have  seen  already  the  neces- 
sity for  a  threefold  conscious  voluntariness  in  Abso- 
lute Reason,  that  he  may  be  known  in  Creation,  and 
in  governmental  Administration  ;  and  equally  is  tri- 
personality  necessary  to  know  God  in  Redemption. 
The  original  eternal  plan  is  of  the  Father ;  the  man- 
ifesting this  in  human  flesh  is  of  the  Son ;  and  the 
execution  of  it,  in  the  human  heart  and  the  universal 
church,  is  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  same  Reason 
which  creates  also  redeems,  and  the  One  Absolute 
Reason  can  be  known  in  human  redemption  only  in 
this  distinctive  being  and  working  of  threefold  con- 


62  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

sciousness  and  will.     Essence,  in  pure  simplicity,  can 
be  conceived  neither  as  creative  nor  redemptive. 

The  first  promise  to  fallen  man  assured  him  that  a 
Conqueror  of  his  tempter  should  come,  as  in  some 
way  the  seed  of  the  woman ;  but  this  promise  in  later 
scripture  is  shown  as  resting  upon  an  earlier  transac- 
tion in  the  counsels  of  the  Godhead.  The  reference 
before  made  to  the  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah  shows 
that  this  Conqueror  was  to  be  a  suffering  Saviour,  since 
"  it  pleased  the  Lord  to  bruise  him ;  "  and  that  "  he 
shall  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  and  be  satisfied ; " 
and  in  these  divine  counsels,  before  all  time,  the 
pledge  was  given  that  this  suffering  Saviour  was  to 
"be  a  victorious  Sovereign,  having  a  spiritual  seed  to 
serve  him.  And  in  Psalms  we  have  the  announce- 
ment of  this  eternal  pledge  and  counsel,  "  I  will  de- 
clare the  decree ;  the  Lord  hath  said  unto  me,  Thou 
art  my  Son ;  this  day  have  I  begotten  thee." l  It  might 
have  been  anticipated,  as  in  these  revealed  eternal 
counsels  it  is  found  to  be,  that  the  Logos  as  the 
second  Person,  or  expressive  manifester  of  the  Father, 
would  be  the  Eedeemer  of  lost  humanity,  and  that 
antecedent  to  his  coming  into  humanity,  he  would 
prepare  the  race  for  his  utterly  unexampled  mission. 
In  Creation  there  is  declared  the  glory  of  God,  but  in 
Redemption  the  divine  wisdom  and  majesty  are  even 
more  profoundly  glorious.  The  race  must  be  first 
disciplined  and  trained  before  they  can  receive  the 
great  mystery  of  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  We 

1  Psalm  ii.  7. 


SPECIAL    PROVIDENCE   CUBBING   DEPRAVITY.  63 

need  not,  then,  wonder  at  the  intervening  thousands 
of  years  between  the  promise  and  the  coming ;  but 
in  all  the  long  history  before  the  Christian  era,  we 
shall  find  the  Logos,  Jehovah  himself,  working  in  and 
upon  the  nations  to  prepare  them  for  his  successful 
coming  and  teaching  as  their  Redeemer.  The  same 
divine  Personality  which  enters  human  flesh,  enters 
beforehand  into  human  history,  and  integrates  him- 
self with  the  race,  that  he  may  bring  them  up  to  ap- 
prehend the  meaning  and  the  mercy  of  his  incarna- 
tion. His  human  living  and  dying  will  be  in  vain, 
without  his  previous  moulding  and  educating  of  the 
humanity  he  redeems. 


SECTION  I. 

SPECIAL  PROVIDENCES  CUBBING  IN  THE  STRONG  TEN- 
DENCIES  TO  IMPIETY  AND  VIOLENCE. 

MAN,  fallen  under  the  control  of  sensuality,  did  not 
like  to  retain  God  in  his  knowledge,  and  the  first 
tendencies  of  depraved  humanity  were  towards  ir- 
religion  and  open  atheism.  The  excited  appetites 
prompted  passionately  -to  gratification,  and  in  the 
selfishness  of  each,  the  weak  were  made  the  prey 
of  the  strong,  and  the  quick  result  was  the  spread 
of  violence  and  crime.  "  All  flesh  corrupted  his  way 


64  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

upon  the  earth/'  and  the  imagination,  thought,  and 
plan  of  the  race  became  evil  continually.  The  carnal 
mind  was  darkened,  and  the  selfish  heart  was  har- 
dened. The  ordinances  and  institutions  of  Paradise 
tending  to  purity  and  piety  were  overborne  and  per- 
verted, and-  what  would  have  been  his  safeguard  in 
virtue  became  the  provocative  to  all  licentiousness 
in  his  depravity.  God  had  said  to  the  first  pair  in 
their  innocence,  "  Be  fruitful  and  multiply,  and  re- 
plenish the  earth;  "  designing  the  propagation  of  the 
race  under  the  restraints  of  marriage,  and  the  genial 
sympathies  of  the  family,  but  which  was  early  prosti- 
tuted to  practices  of  polygamy,  adultery,  and  pro- 
miscuous licentiousness.  In  the  early  vigor  of  the 
race  and  the  unchecked  indulgence  of  sexual  passion, 
the  earth  was  over-rapidly  peopled  by  exorbitant 
births  and  prodigious  longevity,  so  that  communities 
and  tribes,  multiplying  and  enlarging  faster  than  they 
could  be  socially  disciplined  and  civilized,  and  seek- 
ing their  territorial  habitations  at  their  own  pleasure, 
interfered  with  and  encroached  upon  each  other,  and 
at  once  opened  in  the  savage  practices  of  rapine,  war, 
and  enslavement  of  captives.  The  Sabbath  had  been 
instituted  in  the  period  of  man's  unsinning  com- 
munion with  God ;  and  immediately  upon  the  fall 
the  way  of  sacrificial  worship  had  been  instituted, 
resting'  all  access  to  God  by  the  sinner  upon  the  me- 
diation of  the  coming  expiatory  death  of  the  Saviour ; 
but  the  growing  masses  of  mankind  carried  their  apos- 
tasy to  utter  rejection  of  all  forms  of  religious  devo- 


SPECIAL   PROVIDENCE   CUBBING  DEPRAVITY.  65 

tion.  Abel  offered  his  acceptable  sacrifice  "  by  faith  " 
in  coining  atoning  blood ;  Seth  and  his  posterity  "called 
on  the  name  of  the  Lord ;  "  and  Enoch  "  walked  with 
God/'  and  was  translated;  but  the  multitude  dis- 
carded God,  and  wrought  wickedness.  The  First-born 
among  men  slew  the  first  Brother  that  was  begotten, 
out  of  spite  to  God's  regard  for  his  expiatory  offer- 
ing :  and  so  onward,  infidelity  towards  God  and  crime 
towards  man  increasingly  abounded,  till  "  it  repented 
the  Lord  that  he  had  made  man  upon  the  earth,"  so 
hopeless  of  all  reformation  had  the  corrupt  race  made 
themselves  before  him. 

Such  general  incorrigible  impiety  and  vice  der 
manded  an  interposing  rebuke,  as  signally  and  wide- 
ly indicative  of  God's  displeasure  and  determination 
to  arrest  and  restrain  it.  The  first  ebullitions  of  de- 
praved sensuality  were  the  most  violent,  and  the  cor- 
recting restraints  were  proportionally  severe.  Suc- 
cessive applications  of  discipline  correct  the  growing 
generations,  and  curb  the  varied  modes  of  outbreak- 
ing sensuality,  till  at  length  the  ages  come  to  such  a 
measure  of  culture,  that  the  Redeemer  may  enter 
into  humanity,  and  penetrate,  and  purify  it  with  a 
new  spiritual  life.  His  corrections  are  always  equal 
and  appropriate  to  the  enormity  of  the  offences. 

1.  THE  WORLD  OVERWHELMED  BY  THE  FLOOD.  —  As 

in  the  first  trial,  so  in  the  first  peopling  of  the  earth, 

God  put  man  in  the  most  favoring  circumstances  for 

the  ends  in  view,  and  left  the  issue  to  man's  responsi- 

5 


66  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

bility.  But  one  family  only  of  all  the  tribes  of  the 
human  race  had  maintained  the  knowledge  and  wor- 
ship of  the  true  God,  while  the  universal  irreligion 
and  profligacy  of  the  rest  of  the  world  had  made  it 
manifest  that  fallen  man  would  pervert  those  favor- 
ing circumstances,  and  that  no  discipline  of  ordinary 
providences  would  prepare  humanity  to  profit  by 
the  introduction  of  the  designed  plan  of  redemption. 
Present  wickedness,  and  the  warning  of  coming  gen- 
erations, demanded  a  terrible  judgment.  God  thus 
forewarned  the  race  that  "  the  end  of  all  flesh  had 
come ; "  and  that  he  would  "  destroy  them  with  the 
earth."  One  hundred  and  thirty  years  he  delayed 
the  desolating  flood,  while  Noah  preached  righteous- 
ness to  that  generation,  and  prepared  the  Ark  for  the 
salvation  of  his  family.  But  none  heeded  the  warn- 
ing, nor  repented  of  their  sins,  and  God's  patience 
found  its  limit.  "  The  windows  of  heaven  were 
opened,  and  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  were 
broken  up ;  "  "  and  the  flood  came  and  took  them  all 
away ; "  "  and  all  flesh  died  that  moved  upon  the 
earth."  "  And  Noah  only  remained  alive,  arid  they 
that  were  with  him  in  the  Ark."  Noah  and  wife,  and 
his  three  sons,  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japheth,  and  their 
wives,  were  saved  to  begin  a  new  peopling  of  the 
earth,  under  the  more  encouraging  circumstances 
which  the  dreadful  judgment  had  induced. 

In  many  respects,  the  second  spread  of  human 
population  upon  the  earth  was  more  favorable  than 
when  immediately  from  the  first  fallen  pair.  The 


SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE   CURBING  DEPRAVITY.  67 

terrible  example  of  human  wickedness  and  God's  deal- 
ing with  it  were  before  the  eyes  of  men ;  the  mercy 
in  the  covenant  that  such  destruction  would  not  be 
repeated,  and  which  the  natural  bow  upon  the  rain- 
cloud  was  made  to  symbolize  ;  and  the  religious  order 
and  control  prevalent  in  the  godly  families  saved  over 
from  the  old  world ;  and  the  manifestly  greater  care- 
fulness in  fixing  the  dwelling-places  of  the  growing 
tribes  and  nations  for  mutual  safety  and  general  ad- 
vantage and  friendship,  —  all  tended  to  individual  im- 
provement and  public  peace  and  harmony.  In  their 
separate  journeyings  arid  colonizing,  they  still  strove 
to  keep  up  monuments  of  common  interest,  and  bonds 
for  persistent  communion  in  towers  and  public  edifices. 

2.  THE  SHORTENING  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  IN  ITS  SUCCES- 
SIVE GENERATIONS.  —  An  average  duration  of  human 
life  before  the  flood,  following  Hebrew  chronology, 
had  been  about  nine  hundred  years.  Noah  lived  six 
hundred  years  before  the  flood,  and  three  hundred  and 
fifty  years  after  it.  But  immediately  after  the  deluge 
the  ages  of  men  upon  the  earth  were  gradually  short- 
ened to  the  time  of  Moses.  We  have  the  record  of 
those  in  the  direct  line  from  Shem  to  Abraham,  and 
these  may  be  taken  as  fair  examples  of  the  longevity 
of  other  Shemitic  families,  as  well  as  those  descend- 
ing from  Ham  and  Japheth.  The  life  of  Shem  was 
continued  to  six  hundred  years,  being  one  third 
shorter  than  the  average  antediluvian  life.  Arphaxad 
lived  four  hundred  and  thirty-eight  years,  and  from 


68  HUMANITY   AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

him  to  Nahor,  the  father  of  Terah,  and  grandfather  of 
Abraham,  were  six  generations,  by  which  time  we 
have  for  his  life  one  hundred  and  forty -eight  years. 
His  son  Terah  lived  longer,  to  two  hundred  and  five 
years,  but  Abraham's  life  was  one  hundred  and  seven- 
ty-five years;  and  thence  to  Moses,  we  have  his 
own  life  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  years ;  but  in 
Psalm  xc.,  referred  to  the  time  of  Moses,  the  set  time 
for  the  age  of  man  is  seventy  years,  and,  in  cases  of 
more  vigorous  constitution,  eighty  years,  at  which  point 
iu  has  since  remained  through  human  generations. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  proximate  physiologi- 
cal tendency  to  diminished  longevity,  the  great  moral 
reason  is  to  be  seen  in  its  influence  on  the  govern- 
ment and  discipline  of  the  race.  The  long  antedi- 
luvian ages  were  ministering  occasions  to  the  great 
wickedness  of  the  old  world.  Sensuality  had  room 
to  mature  and  execute  its  selfish  schemes  in  the 
broadest  manner,  and  the  distance  of  anticipated 
death  emboldened  in  indulgence  and  confirmed  in 
habits  of  licentious  excess  and  wanton  iniquities.  The 
death  of  the  body,  as  the  curse  for  the  fall,  was  a 
merciful  mitigation  of  the  original  penalty  of  eternal 
death  for  sin,  and  designed  to  hold  the  race  under 
perpetual  admonition  of  God's  great  displeasure 
against  the  transgression  of  the  first  pair,  and  a  salu- 
tary restraint  of  controlling  sensuality  in  coming 
ages.  But  this  deferring  the  return  of  man  to  dust, 
through  long  centuries,  had  only  eventuated  in  his 
fully  setting  his  heart  to  do  evil.  The  experience 


SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE  CURBING  HUMANITY.  69 

proved  that  a  race  of  sinners,  living  a  thousand  years 
on  the  earth,  could  not  be  brought  by  any  ordinary 
moral  discipline  to  such  a  state  of  moral  preparation 
that  the  promised  Redeemer  could  come  to  them  with 
any  expectation  of  their  acceptance  of  his  salvation. 
But  this  cutting  short  of  human  life  by  nine  tenths  of 
its  duration  was  a  most  powerful  and  largely  success- 
ful means  of  bridling  human  lust  and  passion,  and 
forcing  a  depraved  race  to  feel  their  need  of  the 
coming  of  a  gracious  Deliverer.  That  the  early  post- 
diluvian generations  might  more  rapidly  repeople  the 
desolated  world,  this  contraction  of  the  life  of  man 
was  graduated  through  several  centuries ;  yet  by  the 
tenth  and  twelfth  generations,  the  old  nearly  thou- 
sand years  of  human  probation  had  been  shortened  to 
threescore  years  and  ten.  By  thus  heavily  pressing 
the  fact  of  mortality  constantly  upon  human  convic- 
tion, there  has  been  a  continual  gracious  influence  in 
keeping  up  a  seed  to  serve  the  Lord 

3.  GUARDING  HUMAN  LIFE  FROM  VIOLENCE  BY  CAP- 
ITAL PUNISHMENT.  —  In  connection  with  the  permis- 
sion to  man  to  eat  animal  flesh  as  food  after  the  flood, 
was  the  caution  to  abstain  from  eating  the  blood.  All 
flesh  was  delivered  into  the  hand  of  man ;  but  as  pre- 
ventive of  all  wanton  cruelty,  and  a  guard  from  sav- 
age ferocity,  blood,  as  the  representative  of  life,  was 
marked  with  special  sanctity.  And  then,  more  effec- 
tually to  restrain  the  violence  between  man  and  man, 
which  had  been  so  prevalent  before  the  flood,  God 


70  HUMANITY  AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

took  occasion  from  this  prohibiting  the  use  of  animal 
blood,  to  require  capital  punishment  for  the  malicious 
shedding  of  human  blood.  "  At  the  hand  of  every 
man's  brother  will  I  require  the  life  of  man.  Whoso 
sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood  be  shed ; 
for  in  the  image  of  God  made  he  man."  1  Governmental 
execution  of  capital  punishment,  properly  adminis- 
tered., will  not  deprave  public  sentiment,  but  impress 
upon  it  salutary  awe  and  veneration,  while  the  with- 
holding of  the  punishment  of  death  by  civil  process, 
in  case  of  murder,  tends  to  provoke  the  excited  neigh- 
borhood to  sudden  vengeance  by  their  own  hands. 
The  death-penalty  should  be  most  carefully  and  sol- 
emnly administered,  but  the  forfeited  life  of  the  mur- 
derer should  be  taken  lawfully,  when  outraged  public 
sentiment  is  endangered  to  bloody  vindication  with- 
out law.  If  public  sentiment  may  be  so  cultivated 
and  elevated  as  to  hold  itself  calm  and  orderly  under 
milder  forms  of  penal  execution,  capital  punishment 
may  then  be  abolished.  But  from  the  flood  till  now, 
humanity  in  no  community  has  seemed  to  rise  above 
the  terrible  necessity  of  legally  exacting  life  for  life. 
In  view  of  the  sad  experience  of  the  old  world 
from  incorrigible  crime  and  violence,  it  cannot  be 
soberly  doubted  that  the  introduction  of  capital  pun- 
ishment by  divine  requisition  was  salutary  and  benev- 
olent. It  did  not  exclude  all  malice  prepense  from 
issuing  in  murder,  but  it  did  check  much  maliciousness, 
and  hold  back  from  many  murders.  It  could  not 

1  Gen.  ix.  5,  6. 


SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE   CURBING   HUMANITY.  71 

again  be  said,  in  any  generation  of  Noah's  descend- 
ants guarded  by  this  legal  sanction,  as  it  was  true 
of  the  old  world,  that  "  the  earth  was  filled  with  vio- 
lence." Combined  civil  authority  restrained  individ- 
ual malignity. 

4.  CONFOUNDING  THEIR  LANGUAGE.  —  Under  these 
restraining  and  remedial  influences,  the  descendants 
of  Noah,  through  his  sons,  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japheth, 
multiplied  in  the  earth,  and  lived  in  harmony  among 
themselves.  The  salutary  dread  from  the  remem- 
bered deluge,  and  traditionary  accounts  and  long  per- 
petuated traces  of  it,  kept  alive  the  recognition  of 
God  and  reverence  for  his  authority.  The  multiply- 
ing families  kept  much  in  company,  though  roving 
from  place  to  place.  This  continued  through  two  or 
three  centuries,  all  of  one  speech  and  preserving  kin- 
dred cordiality  and  friendship  ;  a  great  improvement 
in  social  life  from  that  of  the  old  world,  but  yet  tend- 
ing to  evils  of  another  kind  and  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion. They  chose  to  keep  together,  and  thus  would 
preclude  many  benefits  from  agriculture,  enterprise, 
and  separate  national  interests.  It  became  necessary 
that  there  should  be  a  special  interposition  for  dif- 
fusing the  population  abroad  into  separate  communi- 
ties. This  took  place  in  the  time  of  Peleg,  as  it  is 
noted  that  "  in  his  days  was  the  earth  divided." 

Peleg  was  born  ninety-seven  years  after  the  flood, 
and  he  lived  two  hundred  and  thirty-nine  years ;  so 
that  at  least  within  about  three  centuries  from  the 


72  HUMANITY  AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

• 

flood  the  families  of  man  were  again  spreading  wide 
abroad  in  the  earth.  The  general  history  is  thus 
given- by  inspiration:  They  were  journeying  all  to- 
gether "  from  the  east/'  and  came  to  "  a  plain  in  the 
laud  of  Shinar."  Here  seemed  a  convenient  place 
for  their  common  abode,  and  they  found  abundant  ma- 
terials for  the  brick  and  mortar  with  which  to  build  a 
city.  To  make  the  city  a  more  important  monument 
of  common  renown,  and  hold  the  people  from  scatter- 
ing abroad,  they  built  also  a  tower,  whose  top,  in  ex- 
aggerated speech,  they  meant  "  should  reach  unto 
heaven."  Scattered  tribes  of  common  speech  ere  long 
make  changes  in  the  language,  beyond  the  capability 
of  mutual  conversation ;  but  here  the  problem  was,  to 
get  the  people  of  common  speech  in  separate  commu- 
nities. They  took  determined  means  to  hold  them- 
selves together.  Jehovah,  in  his  power  and  wisdom, 
reversed  the  natural  process,  and  made  their  speech 
unintelligible  among  themselves,  and  thus  obliged 
them  to  separate  into  different  clans,  according  to  their 
capability  of  using  a  common  dialect.  So  were  they 
necessarily  sundered,  and  the  different  portions  of 
the  earth  inhabited,  and  the  common  city  and  tower 
in  the  plain  of  Shinar  deserted  of  at  least  the  most  of 
their  builders.  This  gave  the  name  Babel  —  confu- 
sion —  to  the  tower  in  subsequent  generations.  So 
all  the  varied  descendants  of  Japheth,  and  Ham,  and 
Shem,  "  every  one  of  them  after  his  tongue/'  were 
divided  in  their  countries  and  nations.  Nimrod,  "  a 
mighty  hunter  from  the  Lord,"  had  his  kingdom  from 


SPECJAL   PEOVIDENCE   CURBING 

Babel,  and  comprising  many   other 

built;  Ashur  built  Nineveh  on  the 

towns ;  and  so  Canaan,  and  Philistia,  and 

the  wide  "  isles  of  the  Gentiles,"  were  inhabited. 

All  these  nations  were  now  in  their  forming  state, 
and  the  elements  of  the  coming  great  Assyrian 
empire  were  gathering;  and  when  at  length  these 
and  other  independent  kingdoms  emerge  into  the 
light  of  history,  they  are  found  with  settled  laws  and 
established  institutions,  recognizing  civil  rights  'and 
religious  obligations.  The  atheism  and  savage  vio- 
lence prevalent  at  the  time  of  the  flood  were  super- 
seded, and  a  more  elevated  and  cultivated  population 
had  been  secured  by  the  special  and  providential 
interpositions  of  the  Lord ;  and  yet  their  civilization 
was  but  little  removed  from  barbarism,  and  their 
religion  was  superstitious  and  idolatrous.  Polytheism 
generally  prevailed,  and  among  the  tribes  of  Shem, 
who  more  conservatively  retained  the  faith  of  mono- 
theism, even  here,  universally,  so  far  as  appears,  the 
believers  in  one  God  were  so  far  degenerated  and 
paganized,  that  they  joined  in  the  general  practices 
of  idolatry.  Even  Terah,  Abraham's  father,  and  his 
contemporaries,  "  served  other  gods." l  Some  new 
method  of  discipline  must  cure  this  idolatry. 

1  Josh.  xxiv.  2. 


74  HUMANITY  AWAITING   REDEMPTION.. 


SECTION    II. 

THE    CALL    OF    ABRAHAM. 

HUMANITY  had  attained  the  age  and  condition  when 
general  providences  and  special  interpositions  of 
judgment  and  mercy  applied  to  all,  or  occurrin'g 
promiscuously  amid  the  varied  families  and  nations  of 
the  earth,  would  not  preserve  the  race  from  continued 
degeneracy  in  sensuality  and  false  religion.  If  its 
sensuality  tolerate  any  religion,  it  must  be  such  as 
submits  to  be  subservient  to  the  flesh.  The  very 
gods  it  worships  will  have  the  passions  and  practices 
which  itself  delights  to  cherish.  It  will  not  recognize 
deity  as  a  spirit,  and  worship  him  in  spirit,  but  will 
have  sensual  media  obscuring  his  pure  spirituality, 
and  ultimately  tolerating  the  thought  that  God  is 
such  a  one  as  itself.  It  is  the  age  of  idolatry,  and  in 
that  point  and  period  of  its  cultivation  and  experience, 
humanity  will  everywhere  tend  to  nature-worship, 
hero-worship,  or  image-worship,  and  all  connected 
cruel  and  debasing  superstitions. 

The  wise  expedient  divinely  taken  is,  to  concentrate 
special  instruction  and  influence  upon  one  nation, 
which  shall  secure  their  acknowledgment  and  worship 
of  the  true  God,  and  set  this  peculiar  people  conspicu- 


CALL   OF  ABRAHAM.  75 

ously  among  the  nations  as  a  missionary  people  for 
the  world.  But  no  one  race  or  nation  can  at  the 
time  be  found  distinctively  spiritual  and  godly  enough 
to  set  forth  as  the  teacher  of  the  world ;  and  the  neces- 
sary process  is  to  begin  with  one  Man,  and  lay  ac- 
cumulating influences  enough  on  him  and  his  rising 
descendants  to  make  and  keep  them  a  special  people 
for  the  Lord.  The  end  in  view  is  the  elevation  of  the 
race,  and  not  partiality  and  favoritism  for  the  chosen 
people ;  and  for  the  sake  of  the  whole,  that  man  must 
be  taken  which  omniscience  shall  see  shall  secure  the 
end  best  and  surest  for  all. 

In  making  such  selection  God  designated  Abram, 
a  son  of  Terah,  the  eighth  in  descent  from  Shem,  the 
son  of  Noah.  The  native  place  of  Terah  was  in  Ur 
of  the  Chaldees ;  but  on  removing  from  Chaldea  to  go 
into  the  land  of  Canaan,  he  journeyed  so  far  as  to  the 
north-western  border  of  Mesopotamia,  and  built  a  city 
for  his  followers,  calling  it  Haran,  after  a  son,  who 
had  died  and  been  buried  in  Chaldea.  This  was  his 
subsequent  residence  and  burial-place,  and  the  early 
home  of  Abram  and  country  of  his  kinsmen.  Here, 
when  Abram  was  seventy-five  years  old,  the  Lord  said 
to  him,  "  Get  thee  out  of  thy  country,  and  from  thy 
kindred,  and  from  thy  father's  house,  unto  a  land  that 
I  shall  tell  thee.  And  I  will  make  of  thee  a  great 
nation,  and  I  will  bless  thee,  and  make  thy  name 
great,  and  thou  shalt  be  a  blessing ;  and  I  will  bless 
them  that  bless  thee, and  curse  him  that  curseth  thee; 
and  in  thee  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be 


76  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

blessed." 1  Abram  obeyed,  and  with  his  family  and 
substance  carried  out  his  father's  old  intention  of 
removing  to  Canaan ;  and  upon  his  arrival  at  Sychem, 
in  the  land  of  Canaan,  the  Lord  again  appeared  to 
him,  and  promised  to  give  the  land  in  which  he  was 
to  his  seed.2  After  having  journeyed  in  different 
directions  in  the  land  with  his  family  and  substance, 
and  Lot,  his  brother's  son,  and  built  altars  to  God 
where  he  rested  j  and  having  also,  on  occasion  of  a 
famine,  been  down  to  Egypt,  and  returned  again  to 
Canaan  with  great  wealth,  and  when  Lot  had  sepa- 
rated from  him  to  dwell  in  the  plain  of  the  Jordan ; 
Jehovah  again  promised  him  the  land  for  his  seed 
with  greater  particularity.  «'  Lift  up  now  thine  eyes, 
and  look  from  the  place  where  thou  art,  northward 
and  southward,  and  eastward  and  westward ;  for  all 
the  land  which  thou  seest,  to  thee  will  I  give  it,  and 
to  thy  seed  forever.  And  I  will  make  thy  seed  as  the 
dust  of  the  earth;  so  that  if  a  man  can  number 
the  dust  of  the  earth,  then  shall  thy  seed  also  be 
numbered."  3 

The  import  of  this  Abrahamic  promise  needs  to  be 
carefully  noted.  It  was  in  substance  repeated  to  him, 
and  subsequently  to  his  son  Isaac,  and  again  to  Jacob, 
and  through  following  centuries  was  the  basis  of 
religious  life  and  Christian  expectation.  The  Old 
Testament  church  rested  upon  it,  and  the  Mew  Testa- 
ment church  is  in  fulfilment  of  it.  In  one  part,  it 
was  an  enlarged  repetition  of  the  promise  to  Adam 

1  Geu.  xii.  1-3.  *  Gen.  xii.  7.  3  Gen.  xiii.  14-16. 


CALL   OP  ABRAHAM.  77 

after  his  fall,  and  renewed  to  Noah  through  Shem 
after  the  flood,  that  some  great  deliverer  from  the 
curse  of  sin  should  come'  in  the  seed  of  Eve.  Here, 
to  Abram,  who  had  descended  from  Shem,  it  was  par- 
ticularized that  the  deliverance  should  be  from  his 
seed,  and  for  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  And  an- 
other part  promised  a  national  possession  of  Canaan, 
and  an  innumerable  posterity.  The  last  national 
part  was  preparatory  and  subsidiary  to  the  univer- 
sal spiritual  part.  The  national  part  was  clear  and 
full ;  the  spiritual  part  made  the  first  promise  at  the 
fall  more  clear  and  full,  but  no  one  was  yet  able  to  see 
in  it  what  the  apostle  Paul  drew  from  it  —  "He  saith 
not,  And  to  seeds,  as  of  many,  but,  Unto  thy  seed, 
which  is  Christ."  l  Besides  frequent  repetitions  of 
the  promise,  there  were  significant  interpositions  and 
institutions  in  connection  with  it,  giving  prominence 
to  the  importance  with  which  God  regarded  it; 
once,  by  instituting  a  special  sacrifice,  and  giving 
a  remarkable  signal  of  his  presence ; 2  again,  by 
changing  his  name  Abram  to  Abraham ; 3  and  then, 
again,  by  the  ordinance  of  circumcision.4  On  this 
promise  the  hope  of  a  lost  world  rested. 

1.  MEANS  FOR  SECURING  ABRAHAM'S  FAITH  AND  DE- 
VOTION TO  GOD.  —  As  the  ancestor  of  the  chosen 
nation,  Abraham  must  be  made  eminently  a  man  of 
God.  He  had  already  been  taken  away  from  the 

1  Gal.  iii.  16.  2  Gen.  xv.  9-17. 

3  Gen.  xvii.  5.  4  Gen.  xvii.  9-14. 


78  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

idolatries  of  Haran,  and  made  to  be  a  pilgrim  and 
stranger  in  Canaan,  and  had  thus  been  thrown  upon 
the  sole  protection  of  God,  who  had  intimately  be- 
friended him  ;  and  this  pilgrimage  life  was  perpetu- 
ated to  the  end  of  his  days.  The  land  was  promised 
to  his  seed,  but  he  had  no  possessions  in  it,  save  the 
purchased  burial-place  of  the  cave  of  Machpelah.  He 
was  greatly  prospered  in  flocks,  and  herds,  and  nu- 
merous servants,  but  he  constantly  wandered  from 
place  to  place.1  And  then  there  was  the  long  defer- 
ring of  children,  apparently  inducing  the  expectation 
that  the  heirship  must  come  by  adoption.2  Then 
Ishmael  is  born,  and  'Abraham  would  have  God  ac- 
cept him,  for  Sarah  has  been  barren,  and  is  now 
aged.  Then  Isaac  is  promised  of  Sarah,3  and  again 
the  time  of  his  birth  is  foretold,4  and  at  the  set  time 
he  is  born,  Abraham  a  hundred  and  Sarah  ninety 
years  old.  And  then,  at  the  destruction  of  Sodom 
for  the  great  wickedness  of  the  people,  God  com- 
munes with  Abraham,  and  hears  his  requests  and 
conditions  for  sparing  the  place  if  at  length  ten 
righteous  persons  could  be  found  in  it ;  and  saves 
Lot  from  the  overthrow ;  and  more  signally  tries  his 
faith,  by  demanding  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac ;  and  fur- 
ther confirms  it,  by  substituting  a  ram  providentially 
supplied  as  the  sacrificial  victim.5  The  result  of  all 
God's  discipline  was,  notwithstanding  manifest  faults 
in  Abraham's  life  a  steady-growing  confidence  in  God 

1  Acts  vii.  5.  2  Gen.  xv.  2-4.  3  Gen.  xvii.  19. 

4  Gen.  xviii.  10.  6  Gen,  xxii.  13. 


CALL   OF  ABRAHAM.  79 

and  fidelity  in  his  service,  to  the  attainment  of  that 
eminence  in  piety  which  made  him  worthy  to  be 
known  as  "  the  father  of  the  faithful.'7 

2.  INFLUENCES  ON  ABRAHAM'S  DESCENDANTS  IN  THE 
LINE  OF^  THE  PROMISE.  —  Patriarchal  government  had 
continued  from  Noah  to  Abraham,  whereby  the  au- 
thority and  influence  of  the  ancestors  largely  moulded 
the  character  and  conduct  of  the  descendants.  To 
secure  the  piety  of  Abraham  was  thus  to  secure  a 
patriarchal  blessing  upon  his  posterity.  God  strong- 
ly depended  on  this  to  prepare  the  way  of  Covenant 
descent  in  holiness.  He  says,  "  For  I  know  him,  that 
he  will  command  his  household  and  his  children  after 
him,  and  they  shall  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord  to  do 
justice  and  judgment,  that  the  Lord  may  bring  upon 
Abraham  that  which  he  hath  spoken  of  him."  1  Ac- 
cordingly, in  addition  to  the  pious  nurture  and  edu- 
cation of  Isaac,  care  was  taken  for  his  marriage  con- 
nection in  the  family  of  Nahor,  Abraham's  brother, 
by  which  Rebekah  more  favorably  came  within  the 
privileges  and  under  the  obligations  of  the  Covenant 
than  could  have  been  anticipated  from  any  of  the 
daughters  of  the  Canaanites.  To  pious  patriarchal 
government  was  added  such  a  providential  arrange- 
ment as  made  the  progress  towards  a  nation  gradual, 
and  very  slow  in  the  early  generations  of  the  patri- 
-archs.  The  bearing  of  this  upon  the  virtue  of  the  ^/ 
national  stock  becomes  strikingly  apparent. 

1  Gen.  xviii.  19. 


80  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

Abraham  had  been  called  in  .Covenant  at  seventy- 
five  years  of  age,  and  remained  for  years  childless ; 
and  when  Ishmael  is  born  he  is  rejected  from  the 
promise,  and  Isaac  is  not  born  and  taken  into  the 
Covenant  till  Abraham  is  one  hundred  years  old. 
All  this,  we  have  seen,  tried  and  ultimately  strength- 
ened the  faith  of  the  first  heir  of  the  promise.  And 
the  like  delay  still  continues.  *  Of  the  children  of 
Isaac,  Esau  is  rejected,  and  Jacob  designated  as  the 
heir  to  the  Covenant.  For  about  one  hundred  years 
no  multiplication  is  made  of  the  Covenant  descend- 
ants. Isaac  singly  perpetuates  the  line  to  Jacob,  and 
Jacob  stands  alone  till  his  children  succeed,  and  from 
him  all  the  posterity  are  reckoned.  Why  not  push  on 
this  national  arrangement  more  rapidly  ?  To  human 
view  it  might  seem  needful  to  hasten,  but  here,  as 
often,  it  is  manifest  that  God  does  not  make  haste, 
and  the  reason  appears  in  the  connected  events.  The 
Ishmaelites  and  the  various  tribes  descended  from 
Abraham  by  Keturah  all  soon  forget  the  God  of  their 
father,  and  become  idolaters.  Esau's  posterity  all  de- 
generate, and  become  absorbed  in  the  general  pagan 
superstitions.  The  great  design  in  the  Abrahamic 
Covenant  matures  as  fast  as  the  depravity  of  human- 
ity in  this  age  of  the  world  will  allow.  By  concen- 
trating special  influences  upon  Abraham,  he  is  made 
strong  in  righteousness ;  by  giving  Isaac  ease  and 
peace,  and  kindly  nurture  all  his  life,  he  becomes  a 
single  link  in  the  pious  succession  ;  and  by  throwing 
Jacob  into  exile,  and  .making  him  pass  through  con- 


EGYPT  AS  THE  HEBREWS'  ABODE.         81 

slant  trials,  and  endure  hardness  all  his  days,  he  is 
made  an  appropriate  stock,  in  which  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel  branch  off,  and  begin  their  hasten- 
ing to  the  promised  "  great  nation."  And  how  cer- 
tain does  it  now  appear,  that  the  multiplication  is  as 
rapid  as  the  race  will  bear !  How  hardly  does  the 
expanded  surface  hold  the  strain  of  the  inward  de- 
pravity !  Iniquity  comes  in  to  the  chosen  people  like 
a  flood.  Reuben  commits  incest  with  Bilhah,  and 
Judah  with  Tamar ;  Dinah  gives  herself  up  in  forni- 
cation with  Shechem,  a  Canaanitish  prince ;  Simeon 
and  Levi  treacherously  slay  all  the  Shechemites,  and 
plunder  their  substance;  and  all  the  brethren  join 
in  hatred  to  Joseph,  and  conspire  to  sell  him  to  the 
Ishmaelites,  and  deceive  Jacob  to  believe  that  he  had 
been  slain  by  a  wild  beast.  The  chosen  stock  can- 
not endure  further  growth,  but  it  must  have  further 
purging  and  pruning. 


SECTION    III. 

EGYPT,  AND  THE  GOING  DOWN  OF  THE  ISRAELITES 
INTO  IT. 

BESIDE  the  dangers  to  the  Covenant  people  from 

their  own  augmenting  depravity,  it  is  difficult  to  see 

how,  without  perpetual  miraculous  interpositions,  they 

could  be  preserved  to  grow  up  to  a  nation  among  the 

6 


82  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

Canaanites.  God's  purpose  concerning  them  was 
publicly  known,  and  both  on  their  own  account  and 
as  a  warning  and  means  of  instruction  to  the  Gentile 
nations,  the  great  Abrahamic  promise  must  be  kept 
prominent  and  often  referred  to.  This  would  neces- 
sarily subject  them  to  the  jealousy  and  exterminating 
hatred  of  the  doomed  nation.  The  spirit  which  sub- 
sequently instigated  Herod  to  slay  the  male  children 
of  Bethlehem  would  be  excited,  and  in  order  to  de- 
feat the  purpose  would  destroy  the  chosen  people 
in  their  weakness.  The  way  divine  wisdom  secured 
the  result  was  to  make  a  lodgment  of  the  Hebrew 
family  within  the  protection  of  the  most  powerful 
kingdom  of  the  earth.  Egypt  was  too  strong  to  per- 
mit any  or  all  the  Canaanite  nations  to  disturb  Israel, 
and  the  interest  of  the  Egyptians  would  secure  the 
growing  people  from  external  or  internal  injury. 
From  their  long  abode  in  Egypt  it  will  be  needful 
somewhat  minutely  to  describe  it. 

There  are  so  many  monuments  of  the  earlier  ages 
still  existing  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  so  much  interest 
has  been  awakened  by  the  at  least  quite  extensive 
deciphering  of  their  old  hieroglyphical  inscriptions, 
and  such  learned  and  careful  explorations  have  been 
made  with  the  modern  facilities  for  tourists  to  visit 
the  tombs  and  temples  of  the  Nile,  that  there  is  now 
little  difficulty,  connected  with '  the  accounts  of  old 
geographers  and  historians,  in  attaining  much  satis- 
factory knowledge  of  this  oldest  and  strongest  em- 
pire of  its  day  in  our  world,  though  still  more  of  its 


EGYPT  AS  THE  HEBREWS'  ABODE.         83 

ancient  history   and   internal    experience   has   been 
irrecoverably  lost  from  any  modern  research. 

1.  THE  SETTLEMENT  AND  GROWTH  OF  EGYPT.  —  Egypt 
is  known  in  Scripture  as  "  the  land  of  Ham."  It  can- 
not be  certainly,  nor  perhaps  probably,  said  that  Ham 
ever  entered  the  Egyptian  valley ;  but  his  second  son, 
Mizraim,  with  his  descendants  after  their  tongues, 
went  there  from  the  plain  of  Shinar,  immediately 
after  the  confusion  of  language  at  Babel.  In  ancient 
historic  notices  Egypt  is  acknowledged  as  the  land 
of  Mizraim,  which  name  Syncellus  writes  Mestraim, 
and  which,  as  first  king  of  Egypt,  Herodotus,  Manetho, 
and  Diodorus  write  Menes.  These  old  historians,  and 
especially  Herodotus,  have  generally  increasing  mod- 
ern credit,  and  are  confirmed  by  general  accordance 
in  their  representations  with  the  Bible  history. 

Herodotus  says  Menes  built  Memphis,  after  having 
reclaimed  its  site  from  the  river  by  artificial  embank- 
ments. The  river  is  first  known  in  history  as  Egyp- 
tus,  and  upon  reaching  it  in  their  westward  migra- 
tion through  the  isthmus  on  the  east,  Mizraim  and 
his  followers  passed  upwards  to  this  more  elevated 
part  of  the  valley,  and  built  here  their  first  perma- 
nent dwellings.  In  a  few  years  the  best  situations  on 
each  side  of  the  river  would  naturally  become  thriv- 
ing towns,  and  soon  some  would  be  populous  cities. 
Thus  with  On  eastward  and  Memphis  westward  of 
the  river,  the  former  given  in  Grecian  history  as 
Heliopolis,  or  City  of  the  Sun,  and  both  retaining 


84  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

monumental  proofs  of  similar  early  antiquity.  As  the 
first  patriarch  gave  name  to  the  whole  land,  so  the 
sub-patriarchs  of  the  tribes  which  settled  in  different 
directions  gave  their  names  to  their  portions  of  the 
country.  The  region  from  Memphis  upwards  to  a 
considerable  distance  was  the  land  of  Noph,  from 
Naphtuhim;  the  lower  part  and  the  Delta  was  the 
land  of  Zoan,  or  Zanam.  from  Anamim;  and  the  The- 
baid,  or  upper  Egypt,  was  the  land  of  Paphros,  from 
Pathrusim.  These  were  three  sons  of  Mizraim ; 1  and 
another  son,  Casluhim,  had  Philistim,  who  settled  the 
south-eastern  shore  of  the  Mediterranean,  stopping  on 
the  way  of  the  family-migration,  or  going  up  as  a  later 
colony  from  Egypt. 

Such  sub-patriarchal  divisions  gave  many  separate 
chieftains,  who  became  each  the  king  of  his  tribe  ; 
and  thus  came  the  early  dynasties,  with  their  several 
kings,  which  are  found  in  later  descriptions  of  the 
Egyptian  government.  Such  consecutive  dynasties, 
and  the  aggregate  number  and  years  of  the  particular 
kings,  as  these  records  present,  can  find  no  consis- 
tency in  any  acknowledged  chronology;  but  if,  as 
above,  they  were  only  partially  successive  to,  and 
frequently  concurrent  with,  each  other,  their  dynastic 
history  is  readily  explicable.  The  list  of  separate 
kings  is  given  quite  variously  by  different  authors, 
such  as  Herodotus,  Diodorus,  Manetho,  the  Old  Chron- 
icle, and  Eratosthenes,  partially  conforming  in  some 
names,  yet  in  no  way  can  they  be  made  entirely  con- 

1  Gen.  x.  13,  14. 


EGYPT  AS  THE  HEBREWS'  ABODE.         85 

sistent  together.  They  agree  in  Menes,  which  is 
Mizraim,  as  the  first  king,  but  are  widely  discordant 
in  later  reigns.  Reference  is  most  frequently  had 
to  the  dynasties  of  Manetho,  an  Egyptian  priest  of 
Sebennytus,  two  hundred  and  eighty  years  before  the 
Christian  era,  and  near  one  hundred  years  after  the 
last  or  thirtieth  dynasty  had  run  out  in  Neetanebes 
II.,  when  followed  the  Persian  conquest  of  Egypt  by 
Ochus,  known  as  Artaxerxes  III.  The  dynasties  of 
Manetho  are  numbered,  and  mostly  give  particular 
names,  and  the  years  they  reigned  ;  but  in  the  earlier 
instances  many  names  are  omitted,  and  not  unfre- 
quently  the  dynasty  has  only  the  aggregate  years  of 
all,  with  no  name  specified.  The  deciphered  hiero- 
glyphical  names  of  Egyptian  monarchs  on  the  monu- 
ments are,  however,  so  frequently  like  the  names  of 
the  kings  in  Manetho's  dynasties,  that  the  monuments 
add  credit  to  the  historic  record,  and  the  two  become 
somewhat  mutually  explanatory  and  confirmatory. 

Bunsen  (Egypt's  Place  in  History)  puts  with 
great  positiveness  the  settlement  and  civilization  of 
Egypt  at  a  much  earlier  date  than  Menes.  He  as- 
sumes to  rely  on  "Egyptian  monuments,  records,  and 
traditions  "  for  proof  that  the  valley  of  the  Nile  was 
peopled  as  early  as  10,000  B.  C. ;  and  Lepsius  before 
him  had  assigned  an  earlier  period  still ;  and  Renan 
has  recently  put  the  age  of  Egypt  even  yet  further 
back ;  all  alleging  the  necessity  of  a  longer  time  than 
the  Hebrew  chronology,  or  ordinary  history,  allows  for 
so  great  national  development  as  is  evinced  in  the  build- 


86  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

ing  of  the  pyramids  and  Egyptian  monuments.  From 
Noah  to  Abraham  in  Hebrew  chronology  is  but  about 
four  hundred  years ;  but  the  Greek  chronology  of 
the  Septuagint  gives  about  thirteen  hundred  years. 
These  chronologies  must  have  been  in  accordance 
in  the  age  of  Christ,  since  the  Saviour  and  evangelists 
quote  from  the  Septuagint,  and  Luke's  genealogy  fol- 
lows the  Septuagint  peculiarities,  in  oJDen  communi- 
cation with  the  Jews.  One  must  since  have  been 
lengthened,  or  the  other  shortened;  and  much  the 
most  probable  is  it  that  the  old  Eabbis  shortened 
the  Hebrew  chronology,  that  thereby  they  might  dis- 
parage the  claims  of  Christ  as  the  Messiah.1 

This  Septuagint  chronology  gives  all  needed  time, 
if  even  the  Hebrew  is  deemed  insufficient.  No  period 
is  reliable  as  assumed  without  monumental  confirma- 
tion, and  the  oldest  royal  names  yet  found  are  the 
last  of  the  third  and  the  first  two  of  the  fourth  dy- 
nasties. On  the  rocks  in  the  Sinaitic  peninsula  are 
found  the  royal  ovals  of  Sephuris,  Soris,  and  Suphis, 
tallying,  as  above,  with  Manetho's  dynasties.  In  the 
great  pyramid,  the  oldest  human  structure  in  the 
world,  a  way  has  been  forced  through  the  solid  ma- 
sonry, above  the  ceiling  of  the  kings'  chamber,  into 
open  interstices  between  the  granite  blocks  that  sus- 
tain the  superincumbent  pressure,  and  in  this  hidden 
recess  there  appear,  on  the  rough  faces  of  the  lime- 
stone blocks,  the  quarry-marks  of  the  workmen  hasti- 
ly sketched  in  red  pigment,  and  among  them  the  name, 
•> 

1  See  Seyffarth's  Summary,  passim. 


EGYPT  AS  THE  HEBREWS'  ABODE.        87 

in  the  royal  oval,  of  Soofo,  or  Suphis ;  thus  seeming  to 
fix  the  author  and  period  as  that  of  the  second  king 
of  the  fourth  dynasty,  and  who  must  have  been  the 
same  as  Cheops,  given  by  Herodotus.  Wilkinson 
(Manners  and  Customs  of  Ancient  Egyptians)  puts  the 
time  of  Suphis  2123  B.  C.  C.  Piazzi  Smyth  (Life  and 
Works  at  Great  Pyramid)  makes  the  design  in  build- 
ing it  to  have  been  a  fixed  standard  of  weights  and 
measures,  quite  ingeniously  if  not  profoundly;  and  by  an 
astronomical  calculation  he  fixes  its  date  at  2170  B.  C. 

No  monumental  inscriptions  yet  found  date  further 
back,  and  in  Hebrew  chronology  this  will  give  three 
hundred,  or  in  Greek  more  than  one  thousand,  years 
for  Egypt's  settlement  before  building  the  first  pyra- 
mid. The  ancestors  of  its  builders  participated  in 
erecting  the  famous  Tower  of  Babel,  and  all  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  old  world  had  come  across  the  flood, 
and  no  attained  civilization  of  that  age  need  ask  for  ; 
higher  antiquity  to  have  secured  its  cultivation. 

The  hill  of  lime-rock,  on  which  the  pyramids  of  Mem- 
phis are  built,  was  a  place  of  royal  and  noble  sepul- 
ture for  successive  generations,  and  the  region  is 
filled  with  tombs,  elaborately  cut  in  the  solid  stone, 
and  opening  into  separate  vaults  and  more  spacious 
chambers.  Perfectly  preserved  paintings  freshly  pre- 
sent these  old  Egyptians  in  all  the  varied  scenes  and 
employments  of  their  times  ;  their  dress,  manners  and 
customs,  and  national  peculiarities.  The  great  man 
of  the  tomb  is  represented  of  large  size,  his  rod  of 
power  and  punishment  in  hand,  his  scribe  taking  an 


88  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

inventory  of  his  possessions,  his  flocks  and  herds 
around  him,  and  his  -laborers  under  their  task-masters 
at  their  varied  employments.  The  Egyptian  society 
had  nothing  of  free  communion  and  equal  fellowship, 
but  was  everywhere  the  austere  master  and  servile 
dependants ;  and  even  the  family  group  was  the  lord- 
ly patriarch  and  submissively  obedient  wife  and 
children.  The  '  tomb  of  Shaffre,  the  name  so  com- 
pounded as  to  be  expressive  of  the  second  Suphis, 
or  son  of  Suphis,  has  recently  been  disclosed  at  the 
south-east  direction  from  the  second  pyramid,  of 
which  he  was  the  builder,  and  abundantly  testifies 
to  the  power,  population,  and  wealth  to  which  the 
kingdom  had  then  attained ;  and  the  tombs  of  other 
great  men  of  the  time  show  that  their  occupants  an- 
nounced themselves  as  the  priests  of  Suphis,  or  of 
Shaffre. 

The  ancient  monuments  and  the  improved  engrav- 
ing in  granite  manifest  that  population  and  culture 
spread  from  Memphis  up  the  river,  settling  and  build- 
ing up  the  Faiouin  on  the  west,  and  Benihassan  on 
the  east  of  the  river;  and  the  improvement  is  per- 
sistently manifest  upwards,  till  it  culminates  in 
Thebes  and  Luxor;  and  then  shows  its  inferiority, 
as  beyond  the  centre  of  cultivated  art,  towards  Syene 
and  the  cataracts.  All  here  is  less  perfect  and  sooner 
decayed.  When  Abraham  visited  Egypt,  Suphis  and 
Shaffre  had  already  reigned,  and  builded,  and  died, 
and  the  nation  in  its  power  and  prestige  was  tend- 
ing upwards  towards  the  Thebaid  ;  and  this  had  be- 


EGYPT  AS  THE  HEBREWS'  ABODE.        89 

come  a  source  of  jealousy  and  dissension,  that  had 
ripened  into  revolt  and  rebellion  before  the  coming 
of  Joseph.  In  the  twelfth  dynast}7,  a  king,  by  Mane- 
tho  named  Sesostris,  a  Diospolite  or  Theban  ruler, 
had  carried  his  arms  around  the  Mediterranean  into 
Europe,  and  left  his  emblems  inscribed  on  the  rocks 
in  the  countries  he  conquered ;  but  in  the  subsequent 
dynasties  till  the  eighteenth,  there  is  continual  change 
and  consequent  confusion,  showing  that  the  government 
was  divided,  and  parts  of  the  country  had  its  different 
kings.  Some  are  Diospolite,  Xoite,  or  Zoan  kings  of 
the  Delta  ;  Shepherd  kings ;  foreign  Phenician  kings  ; 
and  Hellenic  shepherd  kings ;  mostly  without  names 
being  given.  The  monuments  give  equal  evidence 
of  commotions  and  dissensions.  Names  have  been 
violently  obliterated,  and  in  some  of  the  tombs  the 
paintings  have  been  defaced  and  desecrated  by  hostile 
hands. 

The  earliest  catholic  forms  of  the  worship  of  Osiris 
may  well  be  taken  as  designed  to  check  this  spread- 
ing alienation.  It  represented  the  collecting  of  the 
scattered  members  and  limbs  of  the  god  into  one 
place,  and  the  union  of  his  votaries  in  common  wor- 
ship at  his  temple  ;  as  if  designed  to  unite  all  Egyp- 
tians in  fellowship  and  devotion  at  the  shrine  of  their 
common  patriarch  Mizraim.  The  varied  forms  of  the 
myth  of  Osiris,  as  in  some  way  presenting  the  dying 
and  reviving  of  nature  by  the  falling  and  overflowing 
of  the  Nile,  were  later  inventions.  But  the  well- 
meant  efforts  at  religious  reconciliation  and  national 


90  HUMANITY  AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

union  found  their  internal  hostilities  too  strong  to  be 
so  overcome.  Different  dynasties  of  kings  reigned  at 
the  same  time  in  different  places,  and  were  hostile  to 
each  other.  Lower  Egypt  was  peculiarly  adapted  to 
the  feeding  of  flocks  and  herds,  and  the  shepherds  of 
Arabia,  Canaan,  and  Phenicia  removed,  just  as  Abra- 
ham had  done,  their  large  flocks  and  herds  to  its  rich 
pastures,  and  returned  to  their  homes  greatly  en- 
riched and  prospered.  The  employment  of  the  shep- 
herd was  then  no  peaceful  Acadian  life,  but  a  per- 
petual strife  with  wild  beasts  and  robbers,  as  in  the 
experience  of  the  young  shepherd  David.  No  men 
were  so  readily  transferred  to  warriors  and  captains. 
They  naturally  made  common  cause  with  the  Egyp- 
tian dissentients  of  their  own  region,  and  powerfully 
assisted  them  in  their  conflicts,  and  afterwards  par- 
ticipated in  the  benefits  of  their  victories.  The  kings 
of  the  lower  and  middle  Egypt  at  first,  and  for  a  long 
time,  triumphed  over  the  old  Diospolitans,  and  drove 
them  into,  and  at  one  time,  at  least,  beyond,  the  The- 
baid,  and  had  authority  over  all  Egypt.  But  at  length 
the  patriotism,  prowess,  and  boldness  of  the  old  The- 
bans  prevailed,  and  drove  the  hated  shepherd-assisted 
armies  back  to  Memphis,  to  On,  to  Xois,  and  finally 
out  of  Zoan  and  Egypt  itself,  and  recovered  the  en- 
tire kingdom,  under  the  complete  sway  of  the  kings 
of  the  eighteenth  dynasty.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
look  abroad  for  an  invading  empire  strong  enough  to 
come  in  and  conquer  Egypt.  All  the  circumstances 
best  comport  with  the  belief,  that  all  the  kings  of 


EGYPT  AS  THE  HEBREWS'  ABODE.         91 

Egypt  were  still  native  Egyptians,  and  helped  by 
foreign  emigrant  shepherds  and  traders,  and  that  the 
causes  of  dissension  and  revolt  were  internal  con- 
flicting interests  and  superstitions,  and  not  national 
foreign  invasions.  So  long  possession  by  a  foreign 
nation  must  have  left  deeper  traces  of  the  exotic  lan- 
guage and  manners,  if  any  such  invasion  had  been. 

Wilkinson  finds  the  name  of  Osirtassen  I.  on  the 
broken  columns  of  a  temple  at  Karnak ;  on  two  obe- 
lisks which  belonged,  to  Heliopolis  below,  and  the 
Faiourn  above,  Memphis  ;  and  in  the  rock-chambers  at 
Beni-hassen;  showing  that  he  had  carried  his  arms 
and  made  captives  among  the  Asiatic  tribes.  His 
name  does  not  appear  in  any  of  the  dynasties  of 
Manetho,  and  is  doubtless  one  of  a  dynasty  of  which 
he  gives  the  aggregate  years  of  the  individual  reigns, 
but  not  the  kings'  names.  Wilkinson  puts  this  Osirtas- 
sen at  the  year  1740  B.  C.,  and  deems  him  contemporary 
with  the  sale  of  Joseph  to  Potiphar,  and  begins  from 
him  what  he  considers  authentic  place  and  date  in 
history.  Because  he  had  carried  his  arms  beyond  the 
Red  Sea,  Wilkinson  deems  that  he  could  not  have 
been  in  the  times  of  the  Shepherd  dynasties ;  but 
as  on  the  obelisks,  and  at  Karnak,  he  has  the  ensign 
of  "  the  lord  of  the  upper  and  lower  country,"  and 
might  thus  have  reigned  when  the  Thebaid  kings 
were  driven  towards  Ethiopia,  in  such  case  nothing 
would  prevent  that  he  should  have  had  collisions 
with  Arabians,  and  even  Assyrians.  All  best  agrees 
with  the  supposition  that  he  was  in  the  zenith  of  the 


92  HUMANITY  AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

sway  of  the  Shepherd  dynasties,  if  he  was  the  king 
contemporary  with  Joseph. 

2.  THE  GOVEENMENT  OF  EGYPT.  —  Its  beginning 
was  patriarchal.  No  descendant  wished  to  dispute 
the  authority  of  Mizraim,  who  was  ruler  and  priest  in 
one.  Naturally  the  civil  and  sacerdotal  authority 
became  united  in  one  person,  and  as  long  as  this  first 
patriarch  lived,  he  was  a  monarch  ruling  in  the  place 
t  and  with  the  sanction  of  God.  Other  sub-patriarchs 
stood  to  their  particular  tribes  in  a  similar  but  sub- 
ordinate position  ;  and  when  the  older  patriarch  died, 
the  advantages  of  union  kept  the  kindred  clans 
voluntarily  submissive  to  some  venerable  chieftain, 
whose  rule  was  accepted  as  under  the  same  divine 
sanction.  Patriarchal  government  naturally  merged 
in  theocratic  government.  Old  polytheistic  nations 
were  universally  not  monarchical  only,  but  theocratic  ; 
and  besides  that  it  came  up  from  the  patriarchal  state 
in  course,  it  had  the  great  recommendation  that  it 
promoted  royal  majesty  and  popular  loyalty.  The 
human  king  had  the  credit  of  being  the  vicegerent 
of  the  tutelar  god  while  he  lived,  and  if  his  reign  had 
been  specially  acceptable  and  venerable,  it  was  easy 
to  set  him  among  the  gods  when  he  died. 

Where  the  government  blended  civil  and  religious 
authority,  the  priests  were  in  consequence  a  power 
in  the  state,  and  though  not  direct  participants  in  the 
sovereignty,  as  the  accredited  messengers  of  the 
gods  they  were  the  legitimate  advisers  of  the  sover- 


EGYPT  AS  THE  HEBREWS'  ABODE.         93 

eign,  and  must  have  special  distinction  and  peculiar 
prerogatives.  They  must  have  their  badges,  and 
revenues,  and  spiritual  functions,  as  a  separate  class 
in  the  community.  The  king  communes  with  the 
gods  directly  through  the  priesthood.  Herodotus  so 
represents  the  position  of  the  Egyptian  priests.1 
"  Those  of  Heliopolis  were  the  most  learned  of  any 
in  all  Egypt.  The  office  was  confined  to  men ;  and 
while  in  other  nations  priests  usually  wear  the  hair 
long,  in  Egypt  they  cut  it  short,  except  on  occasions 
of  great  mourning.  They  observe  great  cleanliness, 
bathe  twice  a  day,  and  practise  religious  ceremonies 
with  great  exactness.  They  have  one  kind  of  dress 
of  linen,  and  their  shoes  were  of  the  byblus.  They  do 
not  spend  their  own  incomes,  but  live  of  the  sacri- 
fices, a  portion  of  which  was  assigned  them  ready 
dressed,  and  wine,  but  they  may  not  eat  of  fish. 
Every  deity  has  his  priests  and  a  chief  priest,  and  at 
death  a  son  succeeds." 

The  royal  hieroglyph  was  the  sun,  or  the  hawk 
and  globe ;  and  the  name  for  the  sun  was  Phre,  pro- 
nounced Phrah,  which  is  the  Hebrew  spelling  for 
Pharaoh,  the  common  title  of  Egyptian  monarchs. 
So,  as  sun-devoted,  we  have  Poti-phar,  Poti-pherah, 
Ho-phrah,  &c.,  as  human  alliances  with  the  patron 
deity. 

3.  THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT. — Very  soon  after  the 
flood,  as  already  noticed,  polytheism  became  univer- 

1  Euterpe,  sec.  3,  35-37. 


94  HUMANITY  AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

sal.  Monotheism,  as  a  faith  and -worship,  lingered  in 
few  cases,  as  that  of  Melchisedek,  king  of  Salem,  and 
among  the  descendants  of  Shem ;  but  at  the  call 
of  Abraham  idolatrous  practices  everywhere  abound- 
ed. The  Egyptian  colony  was  superstitious  and 
idolatrous  from  the  first,  and  very  early  their  peculiar 
religious  cultus  began  its  development.  It  may  be 
deemed  that  the  worship  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  as 
the  emblems  of  the  true  God,  marked  the  first  depart- 
ure from  the  monotheistic  faith  in  the  family  of 
Noah,  and  consequential  upon  this,  polytheism  and 
v/  idolatry  were  sure.  Herodotus  supposes  this  to  have 
been  the  first  worship,  as  he  deems  society  to  have 
begun  in  paganism.  "  The  original  deities  men  adore 
are  the  sun,  moon,  earth,  fire,  &c."  Clio,  sec.  131. 
And  Diodorus  Siculus,  lib.  1,  says,  "The  ancients 
looking  up  to  the  heavens  and  universal  nature,  and 
wondering,  received  as  the  first  eternal  deities  the 
sun  and  the  moon."  From  what  has  been  above 
noticed  of  the  Egyptians,  it  has  been  evident  that 
the  sun  was  made  their  supreme  deity.  Their  first 
king,  Menes,  the  patriarch  Mizraim,  ruled  in  the 
place  of  this  chief  god,  and  was  himself  worshipped 
after  his  death,  as  Osiris,  in  the  gathering  of  all  relics 
of  him  that  had  been  scattered,  into  one  place,  to 
unite  all  the  people  in  one  common  superstition. 
With  Osiris  was  connected  the  worship  of  Isis,  the 
representative  of  the  moon,  as  the  former  had  been, 
through  the  king,  the  representative  of  the  sun ;  and 
here  was  involved  what  was  peculiar  to  the  Egyptian 

a 


EGYPT  AS  THE  HEBREWS'  ABODE.        95 

religion.  Some  marked  characteristic  of  animal  or 
plant  rendered  the  object  sacred,  proper  to  be  dedi- 
cated to  the  deity,  and  induced  its  mark  or  name  to 
become  the  standing  hieroglyphical  sign  of  the  god. 
So  the  bull,  as  Apis,  representing  the  fertilizing  pow- 
er of  solar  light  and  heat,  was  sacred  to  Osiris,  as  the 
heifer  was  to  Isis.  The  Egyptian  hawk,  from  his 
keen  sight,  represented  the  omniscience  and  wisdom 
of  Thoth ;  the  crocodile  was  terrible  and  tongueless, 
representing  the  certain,  though  silent,  retributions 
of  the  deity;  and  thus  with  the  goat,  cat,  ibis,  and 
lotus  and  papyrus  plants.  The  cat,  from  the  pecu- 
liar fire  of  its  eye  in  the  dark,  was  a  proper  represen- 
tation of  the  moon  in  the  sun's  absence,  and  so  the 
cat  was  sacred  to  Isis.  Particular  animals  of  the  kind 
were  dedicated  to  the  god,  and  henceforth  the  priest 
cherished  and  fed  them  as  sacred.  To  kill  such  sa- 
cred animal  was  a  capital  offence,  with  no  reprieve ; 
and  when  they  died  they  were  embalmed,  and  carried 
to  their  sacred  depositories  in  their  assigned  cities; 
and  myriads  of  sacred  cats,  crocodiles,  ibises,  &c.,  lie 
embalmed  in  their  assigned  cemeteries. 

These  sacred  animals,  as  dedicated  to  the  god,  were 
not  always  of  the  kind  which  might  be  sacrificed  in 
its  city,  and  as  matter  of  fact,  the  sacrificial  animals 
were  of  very  limited  variety.  Herodotus1  gives  a 
minute  account.  The  swine,  though  an  unclean  ani- 
mal to  an  Egyptian,  was  yet  sacrificed  to  Isis  at  the 
time  of  full  moon  only.  In  the  Thebaid;  goats,  but 

1  Euterpe,  sec.  41  and  onward. 


96  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

not  sheep,  were  sacrificed,  except  at  an  annual  festival 
they  kill  a  ram  and  cast  its  skin  over  the  image  of  the 
god;  but  at  Mendes  they  sacrificed  sheep  and  ab- 
stained from  goats.  Bulls  and  young  male  calves 
were  sacrificed  to  Isis ;  but  cows  and  young  heifers 
were  not  reciprocated  in  sacrifice  to  Osiris.  So  scru- 
pulous were  the  Egyptians  about  the  blood  of  the 
sacred  heifer,  that  they  never  used  a  knife  or  cooking 
utensil  of  another  people,  lest  these  should  have 
touched  the  blood  or  flesh  of  the  sacred  animal.  No 
other  fowl  but  geese  were  offered  in  sacrifice.  He- 
rodotus l  says  expressly  that  swine,  bulls,  and  male 
calves,  and  geese  were  all  that  were  sacrificed,  though 
from  former  statement  he  should  have  added  goats  at 
Thebes,  and  sheep  at  Mendes. 

The  great  sacrifice  was  that  of  the  sacred  bull  to 
Isis.  Isis  was  represented  as  a  woman,  with  the 
horns  of  the  new  moon  upon  her  head.  The  prepara- 
tion for  the  sacrifice  was  a  careful  examination  of  the 
animal  by  the  designated  priest.  He  must  be  wholly 
white,  and  a  single  black  hair  would  tarnish  his  pu- 
rity. When  found  unblemished,  the  priest  affixes  the 
sacred  signet  to  his  horns,  and  he  is  led  with  great 
solemnity  to  the  altar.  A  fire  is  kindled,  libations  of 
wine  poured  out,  the  goddess  is  invoked,  and  the  vic- 
tim slain.  The  skin  is  then  flayed,  the  head  separated 
from  the  body,  and  imprecations  heaped  upon  it  to 
avert  all  divine  anger  from  the  worshippers,  and  then 
sold  to  a  stranger  or  cast  in  the  river.  No  Egyptian 

1  Sec.  45. 


EGYPT  AS  THE  HEBREWS7  ABODE.        97 

will  feed  from  the  head  of  any  sacrificed  bullock.  The 
body  is  afterwards  dismembered,  carefully  examined, 
and  then  burned  with  various  ceremonies.  Other  sac- 
rifices had  their  own  peculiarities.  There  were  also 
prescribed  forms  of  divination  in  the  consulting  of 
the  sacred  oracles ;  and  that  of  the  great  deity  at 
Thebes  was  the  parent  of  all  subsequent  Grecian  and 
Roman  oracles. 

Some  peculiar  doctrines  were  much  more  elaborat- 
ed in  their  teaching,  and  inculcated  by  national  prac- 
tices and  customs.  Such  were  especially  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  and  rewards  and  punishments  after 
death.  The  doctrine  of  metempsychosis,  or  varied 
transmigrations  of  the  soul,  was  one  form  of  Egyptian 
belief;  and  out  of  it  grew  the  practice  of  embalming 
and  careful  preservation  of  the  body  in  its  mummy- 
state,  that  at  the  long  period  of  the  soul's  return  it 
might  find  and  again  inhabit  its  old  tenement. 

And  so  the  representations  in  their  tombs  of  the 
funeral  procession  over  the  river,  the  arraignment  of 
the  dead  before  Osiris,  and  his  approving  or  disap- 
proving sentence  on  the  former  life,  and  the  disposal 
of  the  body  under  the  sanction  of  the  divine  appro- 
bation, gave  rise  to  similar  mystic  forms  in  their  secret 
orgies,  and  which  were  the  source  of  the  famed  mys- 
teries in  imitation  at  Eleusina,  and. Thrace,  and  other 
Grecian  cities,  and  which  mystic  rites  were  continued 
from  Greece  to  the  Romans.  The  practice  .of  em- 
balming was  a  religious  rite,  and  more  perfect  in  later 
than  in  earlier  times,  when  they  had  found  and  applied 
7 


98  HUMANITY  AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

the  most  effectual  bitumen  to  secure  the  most  com- 
plete preservation  of  the  mummy.  The  method  need 
not  be  specified,  as  the  mummy-pits  are  so  abundantly 
open  to  modern  inspection.  The  civil  authority  had 
its  hand  on  all  these  religious  rites,  inasmuch  as  it 
lised  religious  fears  and  hopes  where  it  could  not 
apply  civil  pains  and  penalties. 

These  may  not  have  had  their  full  development,  as 
given  by  the  Greek  historians,  in  the  time  of  Joseph ; 
yet  the  principle  and  form  of  the  Egyptian  state  reg- 
ulations were  early  established,  and  the  Hebrew  peo- 
ple were  now  to  be  introduced  into,  and  become  famil- 
iar with,  these  Egyptian  peculiarities. 

4.  THE  GOING  DOWN  OF  THE  ISRAELITES  INTO  EGYPT. 
—  From  the  call  of  Abraham  to  the  going  into  Egypt 
had  been  two  hundred  and  fifteen  years,  during  which 
period  the  progress  of  the  chosen  people  towards  a 
national  existence  had  been  most  remarkably  slow, 
having  increased  in  all  to  only  seventy  individuals. 
Their  continuance  in  Egypt  was  precisely  for  the 
same  period  of  two  hundred  and  fifteen  years,  but  in 
this  latter  period  the  accumulation  of  Abraham's  pos- 
terity had  been  as  remarkably  rapid,  numbering  one 
year  after  their  exodus  six  hundred  and  three  thou- 
sand five  hundred,  and  fifty  men  above  twenty  years 
of  age  able  to  bear  arms.1  The  tribe  of  Levi  was  ex- 
cepted  in  this  enumeration,  as  pertaining  to  the  sacer- 
dotal office,  and  not  subject  to  military  service.  The 

1  Num.  i.  45,  46. 


EGYPT  AS  THE  HEBREWS'  ABODE.         99 

addition  of  those,  together  with  the  aged,  the  children, 
and  the  women,  could  have  made  the  entire  popula- 
tion scarcely  less  than  two  million  souls.  So  effective 
had  been  the  divine  arrangement  for  their  safety  and 
prosperity  during  their  national  minority. 

Joseph,  the  oldest  son  of  Rachel,  and  the  favorite 
of  Jacob,  was  already  in  Egypt,  having,  through  the 
jealousy  and  hatred  of  his  brethren,  been  sold  by 
them  4to  Midianitish  merchants,  who  had  again  sold 
him  to  Potiphar,  captain  of  Pharaoh's  guard.  Soon 
after,  from  the  false  charge  of  his  licentious  mistress, 
Joseph  was  imprisoned  in  Egypt ;  but  both  under  Poti- 
phar and  in  prison,  the  favor  of  God  was  with  him, 
and  all  he  did  prospered.  The  spirit  of  prophecy 
imparted  to  him  enabled  him  to  interpret  the  dreams 
of  two  state  prisoners  with  him  according  to  subse- 
quent fact,  and  this  opened  the  way  for  his  introduc- 
tion to  Pharaoh,  and  interpretation  of  two  remarkable 
successive  dreams,  indicating  seven  years  of  great 
plenty  in  the  land,  to  be  followed  by  seven  years  of 
famine.  He  was  in  consequence  at  once  set  at  the 
head  of  the  national  administration,  allied  in  marriage 
to  the  priesthood,  which  was  the  highest  order  in  the 
state,  and  managed  all  things  during  the  years  of 
plenty  in  provision  for  the  succeeding  years  of  famine. 
This  famine  reached  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  the  fam- 
ily of  Jacob  became  dependent  upon  the  granaries  of 
Egypt ;  and  after  the  affecting  trial  of  his  brethren 
for  Benjamin's  sake,  Joseph  made  himself  known  to 
them,  and  by  Pharaoh's  invitation,  the  whole  patriar- 


100  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

chal  family  went  to  Egypt,  and  were  settled,  by  order 
of  the  king,  in  Goshen,  the  most  fertile  province  of 
the  realm. 

Their  early  abode  in  Egypt  was,  on  Joseph's  ac- 
count, under  great  royal  favor.  If,  as  we  have  before 
noticed,  this  Pharaoh  was  the  Osirtassen  I.  found  on 
the  earliest  monuments,  and  also  one  of  Manetho's 
Sixteenth  Dynasty  of  Shepherd  Kings,  who  now 
reigned  over  all  Egypt,  the  circumstances  connected 
with  the  chosen  race  in  Egypt  find  a  natural  and 
ready  explanation.  When  Jacob  and  the  family  first 
came  to  Egypt,  Joseph  certainly  designed  to  ingra- 
tiate the  king  towards  them,  and  he  tells  Pharaoh  that 
they  were  shepherds,  and  yet  it  was  then  true  that 
"  every  shepherd  was  an  abomination  to  the  Egyp- 
tians." If  the  king  was  one  of  the  old  Theban  mon- 
archs,  or  of  any  regular  Egyptian  dynasty,  such  a 
course  would  seem  inexplicable,  and  directly  calcu- 
lated to  subvert  Joseph's  intention.  But  if  he  was 
of  the  Shepherd  dynasty,  as  helped  in  power  by  for- 
eign immigrants,  whose  retainers  were  as  many  each, 
and  as  warlike,  as  the  trained  servants  of  Abraham, 
nothing  could  have  been  more  in  accordance  with  the 
promptness  and  tact  of  Joseph.  The  king  puts  the 
Hebrew  strangers  at  once  in  the  midst  of  Egypt's 
choicest  pastures,  and  directs  that  the  most  skilful  of 
them  be  set  over  the  royal  flocks  and  herds.  During 
this  dynasty,  Israel  would  be  fostered  and  prospered. 
Joseph  might  have  been,  probably,  thirty  years  of  age 
at  this  time,  and  he  lived  to  one  hundred  and  ten 


EGYPT  AS  THE  HEBREWS'  ABODE.        101 

}Tears ;  and  at  least  so  long  the  favor  and  fostering 
care  of  Pharaoh  would  be  sure  to  his  brethren  and 
their  posterity. 

In  the  mean  time,  Jacob  had  given  the  patriarchal 
and  prophetic  blessing  to  his  children,  died,  been  em- 
balmed, and  carried  to  his  own  burying-place  in  Ca- 
naan |  Joseph  had  quieted  all  fears  of  retaliation,  and 
pledged  his  brethren  that  he  would  nourish  and  pro- 
tect their  children  after  Jacob's  death ;  his  own  family 
had  largely  increased,  and  the  third  generation  of  his 
children  had  grown  up  about  him ;  and  then  on  for  a 
season  after  Joseph's  death  and  all  his  brethren,  the 
Hebrews  remained  still  prosperous,  so  that  emphati- 
cally it  is  said  of  them,  "  they  were  fruitful  and  in- 
creased abundantly,  and  multiplied  and  waxed  exceed- 
ing mighty,  and  the  land  was  filled  with  them." 

But  such  constant  and  long-continued  favor  had  its 
dangers.  It  tended  to  luxurious  effeminacy  and  de- 
generacy; to  forget  their  covenant,  and  undervalue 
its  promises ;  to  be  satisfied  with  their  state,  and  both 
unable  and  unwilling  to  meet  the  necessary  hardships 
which  must  be  passed  through  in  taking  possession 
of  their  promised  inheritance.  After  this  prosperity 
had  lasted  more  than  a  century,  God,  in  his  provi- 
dence, greatly  changed  their  condition.  The  old 
Theban  princes  and  captains  renewed  their  courage 
and  conflict,  and  recovered  their  government  of  the 
nation.  Their  insurgent  enemies  were  gradually  ex- 
pelled, and  the  Hebrews,  so  much  in  favor  with  them, 
were  sure  to  feel  the  jealousy  and  distrust  of  the 


102  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

embittered  conquerors.  As  they  forced  the  kings  of 
the  shepherd  dynasties  from  Thebes,  and  then  from 
Memphis,  and  down  into  the  Delta,  and  took  the  rule 
of  upper  and  middle  Egypt,  and  pressed  upon  their 
retreating  and  enfeebled  enemies  utterly  to  subdue 
them,  we  have  the  coming  in  of  the  eighteenth  dynas- 
ty, and  the  "  new  king  arose  who  knew  not  Joseph." l 
These  old  insurgents  might  again  make  fight,  and 
such  a  multitude  of  foreign  people  were  dangerous.2 
"  So  they  set  over  them  task-masters,  and  made  their 
lives  bitter  with  hard  bondage  in  mortar,  and  in  brick, 
and  in  all  manner  of  service  in  the  field ; "  and  when, 
notwithstanding  this  vigorous  oppression,  "  the  more 
they  afflicted  them,  the  more  they  multiplied  and 
grew/'  this  new  king  commanded  the  midwives  to 
save  alive  only  the  female  births  and  make  way  with 
all  the  male  children.  While  this  edict  was  in  force, 
Moses  was  born ;  hid  three  months  by  his  parents,  and 
then  exposed  in  a  cradle  of  rushes  on  the  brink  of  the 
river.  The  child  was  here  found  by  the  king's  daugh- 
ter, adopted  by  her  as  her  own,  and  brought  up  in  the 
palace,  and  became  "  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
Egyptians."  This  prepared  him  so  far  for  the  post  of 
captain  and  lawgiver  to  the  chosen  nation.  The  time 
had  come,  and  God  had  made  his  oppressed  people 
ready  and  willing  to  assume  their  independence,  and 
go  out  to  the  conquest  of  their  inheritance. 

1  Ex.  i.  8.  2  Ex.  i.  10. 


EXODUS  AND  THE  THEOCRACY.         103 


SECTION  IV. 

THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL,  AND  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  A 
GOVERNMENT. 

MOSES  was  forty  years  at  the  Court  of  Egypt.  He 
still  maintained  his  loyalty  to  his  national  Covenant 
with  Jehovah,  and  his  patriotic  attachment  to  his 
people.  By  taking  part  with  his  brethren,  and  hasti- 
ly slaying  an  Egyptian,  an  oppressor,  he  was  forced 
to  flee  to  Arabia,  and  became  a  shepherd  in  the  land 
of  Midiau,  married  a  daughter  of  Jethro,  and  kept  his 
flocks  in  the  valleys  of  the  mountainous  region  about 
Sinai,  and  has  here  the  very  different  discipline  for 
his  future  work  through  the  next  forty  years,  and 
which  future  work  was  to  occupy  the  last  forty  years 
of  Moses'  life  in  its  execution.  In  this  wild  region 
about  Sinai,  he  sees  a  bush  in  a  flame  while  the  bush 
itself  is  not  burned,  and  a  voice  from  it  proclaimed 
the  presence  of  the  God  of  his  fathers,  and  gave  to 
him  a  commission  to  lead  his  people  from  bondage 
to  their  free  inheritance  in  Canaan.  After  a  series 
of  most  desolating  judgments  upon  Egypt,  which 
evinced  the  power  of  Israel's  God  above  all  the  gods 
of  Egypt,  the  stubborn  opposition  of  Pharaoh  was 
subdued,  and  he  assented  to  Israel's  departure.  All 


104  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

being  ready)  the  whole  nation,  old  and  young,  left 
Egypt,  and  journeyed  eastward  to  the  western  gulf 
at  the  northern  extremity  of  the  Eed  Sea.  Here 
was  the  miracle  of  the  divided  waters  for  Israel's 
passage,  and  their  returning  flood  for  the  destruction 
of  the  pursuing  Egyptians,  thus  spreading  wide 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth  the  knowledge  of  the 
true  God,  whose  power  and  authority  above  all  gods 
it  was  the  special  mission  of  the  seed  of  Abraham  to 
publish  and  establish.  Moses  led  the  people  on  into 
the  opening  wilderness ;  God  made  the  manna  to  fall 
about  their  encampments,  and  the  stream  to  flow  from 
the  rock  smitten  by  Moses'  rod;  and  the  attacking 
Midianites  were  overthrown,  as  the  supported  hands 
of  Moses  lift  the  rod  all  day  towards  heaven ;  and  at 
length,  in  a  three  months'  march  from  their  leaving 
Egypt,  they  came  to  the  place  where  God,  from  the 
burning  bush,  had  ordered  Moses  to  put  the  shoes 
from  his  feet  because  the  place  where  he  stood  was 
holy  ground ;  and  here  they  pitched  their  tents,  and 
prepared  for  a  long  encampment,  at  the  foot  of  Mount 
Sinai.  All  disturbing  enemies  were  overthrown,  and 
all  necessary  sustenance  was  provided,  and  here  the 
essential  and  difficult  work  of  organizing  the  fugitive 
people,  and  establishing  a  stable  constitution,  and  open- 
ing the  administration  of  a  national  form  of  govern- 
ment, was  to  be  accomplished. 

1.  THEIR  CHARACTER  A^D  TENDENCIES  FROM  THEIR 
EDUCATION    IN    EGYPT.  —  Their  fathers   had  died  in 


EXODUS  AND  THE  THEOCRACY.         105 

Egypt,  and  they  had  all  been  born  and  nurtured 
there,  and  there  will  all  their  recollections  and  early 
associations  turn  the  current  of  their  thoughts  and 
sympathies ;  and  thus  the  influence  of  their  abode  in 
Egypt  must  be  expected  to  characterize  the  temper 
and  habit  of  the  Israelites  for  the  present,  and  mani-  T 
fest  its  tendencies  for  many  ages.  They  had  hence 
derived  all  their  notions  of  social  life,  municipal  and 
civil  regulations,  rights  of  property,  and  modes  of 
agriculture,  architecture,  manufacture,  and  military 
training,  and  had  been  constantly  under  the  influ'ence 
of  Egyptian  religious  doctrines  and  practices.  They 
had  preserved  their  Hebrew  peculiarities,  and  by  liv- 
ing mainly  together  had  retained  the  habits  induced 
by  their  education  from  the  patriarchs,  and  especially 
their  distinction  from  all  other  peoples  in  their  Cove- 
nant and  promise  from  God  to  their  fathers ;  and  many 
of  them,  under  the  discipline  of  their  hard  bondage, 
had  doubtless  imbibed  the  true  spirit  of  their  fathers' 
faith,  and  scrupulously  conformed  to  their  fathers' 
worship  and  piety ;  yet  in  many  ways,  it  is  manifest 
that  the  mass  of  the  Hebrews  had  largely  conformed  ,•) 
in  feeling  and  practice  to  Egyptian  habits. 

Their  heavy  burdens  had  not  weaned  their  attach- 
ments from  their  old  homes,  nor  kept  them  from  fall- 
ing in  with  the  superstitions  and  idolatries  of  their 
oppressors.  They  desired  more  a  relief  from  bond- 
age in  Egypt  than  a  final  departure  from  Egypt. 
Moses  had  early  thought  it  easy  to  arouse  them  to 


106  HUMANITY  AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

their  deliverance,1  but  a  wider  acquaintance  with 
the  spirit  of  his  people  had  apparently  made  him 
hopeless  of  their  ever  waking  up  to  independence 
and  freedom,  and  he  long  resisted  the  taking  upon 
himself  God's  commission  to  emancipate  them.2  At 
every  rising  difficulty  and  hardship,  or  special  danger, 
in  their  way  up  from  Egypt  to  Canaan,  they  murmur, 
are  discouraged,  and  fill  their  minds  with  remem- 
brances of  the  good  things  left  behind  them,  and 
long  to  return  to  their  enjoyment.3  Even  here  be- 
fore* Sinai,  while  God  is  giving  them  their  law,  and 
Moses  is  withdrawn  a  few  days  from  them  in  com- 
munion with  the  Divine  Lawgiver,  witli  the  glory 
of  Jehovah's  presence  bright  before  them,  they  make 
their  golden  calf,  after  the  worship  of  the  Egyptian 
sacred  Bull,  and  cry,  "  These  be  thy  gods,  0  Israel." 
And  onward  into  their  future  history,  Egyptian  su- 
perstitions and  idolatrious  observances  easily  and  re- 
peatedly lead  the  people  off  from  their  Covenant ;  so 
deeply  had  they  become  Egyptiani^ed  in  their  early 
experience. 

With  the  inward  tendencies  of  fallen  humanity  to 
idolatry,  and  the  universal  influence  from  the  practice 
of  all  surrounding  nations,  in  connection  with  this 
early  imbuing  of  the  Hebrew  mind  with  the  idola- 
trous system  matured  and  all-controlling  in  the  val- 
ley of  the  Nile,  it  is  very  manifest  that  the  strongest 

1  Ex.  ii.  11-14.    Confer  Acts  vii.  25. 

2  Ex.  iii.  11,  iv.  1,  v.  20-23,  vi.  12. 

8  Ex.  xvi.  3,  xvii.  3 ;  Num.  xi.  4-6,  xiv.  3,  4. 


EXODUS  AND  THE  THEOCRACY.         107 

guards  and  the  most  controlling  and  stringent  regula- 
tions must  be  applied  to  Israel,  or  the  very  design  of 
Abraham's  Call,  and  the  end  of  God's  promise  to  bis 
seed,  must  be  lost  in  their  apostasy  and  general 
impiety.  To  this  end  must  we  look  for  the  peculiari- 
ties of  God's  dealings  with  the  chosen  people ;  and 
especially  now,  in  their  formal  organization  as  an 
independent  government  and  free  state,  should  we 
anticipate  the  most  comprehensive  and  profoundly 
wise  adaptations  and  institutions,  inspired  by  Jeho- 
vah, and  embodied  in  the  constitution  and  code  of 
laws  which,  under  the  divine  direction  and  through 
the  medium  of  Moses,  are  here  to  be  proposed  to  the 
nation,  and  adopted  by  them.  The  Israelites  staid 
in  this  safe  and  convenient  encampment  nearly  a 
year ;  and  in  many  respects,  both  to  Israel  and  the 
human  race,  it  is  among  the  most  important  of  any 
year  of  the  world's  history.  More  is  done  here  to 
settle  in  human  recognition  the  principles  of  God's 
gracious  purposes  of  redemption,  than  in  any  other 
year  will  occur  till  the  coming  of  the  Messiah. 

2.  To  THIS  CONDITION  A  THEOCRACY  WAS  EMINENTLY 

ADAPTED  AND  ADOPTED  BOTH  BY  GOD  AND  THE  PEOPLE. 

—  The  Egyptian  government  was  a  Theocracy,  hav- 
ing the  sun  as  the  chief  Deity,  and  worshipped  as 
Ammun,  Noph,  Ra,  Phrah,  Osiris,  &c.,  and  from  whom 
was  assumed  to  come  all  civil  and  religious  authority. 
He  made  the  laws,  and  inspired  the  king  and  priest- 
hood to  apprehend,  interpret,  arid  apply  his  will,  in  all 


108  HUMANITY   AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

legislation  and  administration  of  government.  The 
civil  power,  on  this  principle,  had  the  right  to  bind 
conscience  and  legislate  on  religion,  for  the  king  was 
the  vicegerent  of  God,  and  ruled  only  under  his  di- 
rection and  approbation.  And  not  only  in  Egypt; 
the  governments  of  all  the  early  great  nations  of  the 
earth  were  theocratic  from  principle  and  policy.  The 
Patriarch  of  the  family  was  the  Ruler  and  Priest  of 
the  family  and  tribe,  from  the  very  constitution  of  the 
family  by  God.  The  descendants  felt  constrained  to 
submit  to  the  authority  of  the  Patriarch  as  the  ordi- 
nance of  God,  and  to  look  to  him  as  the  constituted 
medium  of  addressing  God  in  prayer  and  sacrifice  ; 
and  as  the  family  enlarged  to  a  tribe,  and  a  nation  of 
tribes,  so  the  king  of  the  nation  stood  as  the  Patri- 
archal Ruler  and  religious  functionary  for  all  the  peo- 
ple of  the  realm.  And  the  policy  perpetuated  the 
application  of  the  principle.  For  no  matter  how  wise 
and  powerful  the  monarch,  nor  how  large  and  vigilant 
his  official  police,  there  must  still  be  many  crimes  he 
could  not  detect,  and  some  wrong-doers  so  strong  that 
he  could  not  punish ;  but  nothing  could  be  hidden  from 
the  gods,  and  none  so  powerful  as  to  escape  divine 
justice.  The  civil  power  in  this  way  had  at  its 
use  all  the  rewards  and  punishments  of  the  future 
world. 

Such  form  of  government  was  highly  expedient  for 
the  chosen  people  in  all  respects.  They  had  become 
accustomed  to  government  in  that  light ;  Moses  had 
been  instructed  in  all  its  principles  and  their  Egyptian 


EXODUS   AND   THE   THEOCRACY^^v "    Oll6&K 

application ;  it  was  the  common  and  alrfcsT  Tiece'ssary 
expedient  for  all  idolatrous  nations  to 
help  the  presence  of  some  god  as  their  pati 
both  as  against  vicious  subjects  and  hostile  enemies, 
and  thus  example  favored  such  government  for  Israel ; 
but  still  more  appropriate  was  it  for  them,  in  the  end 
of  God's  design,  to  bring  them  off  from  all  idolatrous 
tendencies,  and  confirm  their  perpetual  attachment 
to  the  one  true  Jehovah.  By  taking  Jehovah  as 
the  national  king  and  patron  God,  and  thus  establish- 
ing a  true  Theocracy,  the  whole  government  stood  on 
right  and  solid  principle,  and  secured  the  highest 
veneration  and  respect  for  the  official  authority,  and 
the  fullest  protection  and  freedom  for  the  subject.  ^  \  ^ 
A  Theocracy  with  a  pagan  god  must  be  superstitious 
and  delusive,  and  will  surely  become  tyrannical  and  & 
oppressive.  The  monarch  and  the  priest  will  use  the 
presence  and  the  power  of  the  false  god  for  their  own 
ambitious  and  selfish  ends,  but  the  presence  and 
power  of  the  true  God  will  control  alike  prince  and 
people,  priest  and  worshipper.  In  such  a  true  applica- 
tion of  a  theocracy,  church  and  state  rightly  go 
together,  and  the  source  for  civil  pains  and  penal- 
ties is  also  the  source  for  righteous  control  over  con- 
science, and  the  application  of  spiritual  blessings  and  # 
divine  judgments.  Besides  this,  the  true  Jehovah 
had  called  Abraham,  and  chosen  his  seed  to  be  a 
people  through  whom  all  nations  of  the  earth  should 
be  blessed.  The  very  end  of  their  existence  as 
an  independent  people  was  their  salutary  influence 


110  HUMANITY  AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

upon  humanity,  and  that  through  them  truth  and 
righteousness  should  be  spread  over  all  people. 
Who  shall  prepare  them  for  their  mission,  and  gov- 
ern and  guide  them  in  all  their  way,  so  legitimately 
and  successfully  as  Jehovah  himself,  who  has  so 
benevolently  raised  them  up  and  brought  them  to 
their  present  position?  Neither  they  nor  the  world 
can  be  served  so  well  as  by  God's  direct  govern- 
ment and  legislation  for  them. 

3.  GOD'S  INSTITUTION  AND  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  A 
TRUE  THEOCRACY.  —  The  general  principles  of  early 
governments  were  theocratic ;  but  inasmuch  as  the  god 
was  false,  the  government  was  unrighteous  and  always 
oppressive.  Only  one  nation  was  ever  in  position  for 
the  righteous  application  of  the  theocratic  principle, 
and  only  the  government  of  the  Hebrew  Common- 
wealth was  a  righteous,  legitimate  theocracy.  It  is 
richer  in  instruction  in  all  the  principles  of  free,  and 
firm,  and  salutary  civil  jurisprudence,  and  more  worthy 
of  deep  study,  than  any  other  national  government, 
ancient  or  modern.  Besides  its  direct  bearing  on  the 
preparation  of  humanity  for  the  application  of  the 
promised  redemption,  even  for  purposes  of  civil 
sovereignty  only,  we  can  better  dispense  with  all 
other  lessons  of  history  and  philosophical  treatises 
of  law  and  polity,  than  to  disregard  or  mistake  the 
divine  teaching  in  God's  own  government  over  this 
one  prominent  nation  of  antiquity,  whose  theocratic 
rule  had  its  practical  manifestation  in  the  world  for 


EXODUS  AND  THE  THEOCRACY.         Ill 

fifteen  hundred  years ;  and  the  scattered  people,  still 
acknowledging  its  authority,  live  on  under  the  chan- 
ging forms  of  other  governments,  amid  the  rise  and  fall 
of  nations,  even  to  the  present  age. 

A  mere  outline  of  the  method  of  the  divine  institu- 
tion of  the  Hebrew  Theocracy  is  here  given. 

The  Israelites  were  encamped  upon  the  plain  at  the 
base  of  Sinai,  and  the  manifestation  of  God's  presence 
was  in  clouds  and  smoke  on  the  mount,  and  God 
called  Moses  upward  thither,  and  in  communion  with 
him  he  gives  the  preliminary  conditions  of  all  further 
proceeding,  and  requires  him  to  go  down  to  the  people 
and  make  the  divine  proposition  fairly  understood,  and 
get  their  free  assent.  "Ye  have  seen  what  I  did 
unto  the  Egyptians,  and  how  I  bare  you  on  eagles' 
wings,  and  brought  you  unto  myself.  Now  therefore, 
if  ye  will  obey  my  voice  indeed,  and  keep  my 
covenant,  then  ye  shall  b.e  a  peculiar  treasure  unto 
me  above  all  people,  for  all  the  earth  is  mine  ;  and  ye 
shall  be  to  me  a  kingdom  of  priests  and  a  holy 
nation."1  Moses  obeyed,  went  down  to  the  plain, 
made  known  to  the  people  the  distinct  proposition 
through  the  elders  ;  and  then  all  the  ^people  intelli- 
gently and  freely  respond,  "  All  that  the  Lord  hath 
spoken  we  will  do.'7  2  Moses  then  returned  to  Jeho- 
vah in  the  mount  with  their  unanimous  assent,  and  God 
accepted  the  full  surrender,  and  bade  Moses  so  to  in- 
form the  people,  and  prepare  themselves,  by  special 
sanctification  and  cleansing,  to  receive  the  formal 

1  Ex.  xix.  4-6.  a  Ex.  xix.  8. 


112  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

ratification  on  the  third  day  from  that  time ;  "  and  it 
came  to  pass,  on  the  third  day  in  the  morning,  that 
there  were  thunders,  and  lightnings,  and  a  thick  cloud 
upon  the  mount,  and  the  voice  of  the  trumpet  ex- 
ceeding loud,  so  that  all  the  people  that  was  in  the 
camp  trembled."  "  Moses  speaks  and  God  answers 
him  by  a  voice."  Thus  in  the  audience  of  all  the 
people  God  announces  the  ten  commandments.  In 
their  terror,  the  people  cried  to  Moses,  "  Speak  thou 
with  us,  and  we  will  hear ;  but  let  not  God  speak  with 
us,  lest  we  die." 

God  then  gave  to  Moses  in  the  mount  the  general 
regulations  contained  in  chapters  21,  22,  and  23;  and 
he  returned  and  rehearsed  them  to  the  people,  and 
they  again  responded,  "  All  the  words  which  the  Lord 
hath  said  will  we  do."  After  this  verbal  assent,  Moses 
built  an  altar  and  made  sacrifice,  and  formally  wrote 
out  the  words  of  this  general  constitution  now  agreed 
upon,  and  read  them  again  in  full  assembly ;  and  this 
third  time  the  people  unanimously  assent :  "  All  that 
the  Lord  hath  spoken  will  we  do,  and  be  obedient." 
Then  Moses  took  the  blood  of  the  sacrifice  and 
sprinkled  with  it  the  Book  and  all  the  people," 
saying, .  "  Behold  the  blood  of  the  covenant  which 
the  Lord  hath  made  with  you  concerning  all  these 
words."  The  ten  commandments  were  afterwards 
written  upon  two  stone  tablets,  as-  fundamental  and 
immutable  moral  obligations  ;  and  these,  with  the  Book 
of  the  Constitution  now  ratified,  and  the  whole  code 
of  legislation  afterwards  divinely  announced  in  ac- 


EXODUS  AND  THE  THEOCRACY.         113 

cordance  with  the  constitution,  were  at  length  put 
for  permanent  preservation  in  the  Ark  of  the  Cove- 
nant,1 and  these  were  every  seven  years,  at  the  year 
of  release,  to  be  read  to  the  great  convocation ;  and 
the  last  act  of  Moses'  public  official  work  was  the 
calling  attention  anew,  and  assent  of  the  nation,  to 
these  words  of  life  and  death  for  them.2 

So  God  himself  has  respect  to  the  right  of  a  peo- 
ple to  choose  their  king  and  adopt  their  form  of 
government,  and  by  such  consent  lie  becomes  their 
civil  Ruler  as  well  as  Patron  Deity.  It  would  have 
been  another  sin  to  have  refused  the  divine  proposal  ;• 
but  having  accepted  and  ratified  the  covenant,  hence- 
forth all  idolatry  and  participation  in  pagan  supersti- 
tions became  rebellion,  and  all  open  resistance  to 
God's  legislation  was  treason.  Provision  was  at 
once  made  for  the  local  abode  and  visible  presence 
of  their  divine  king  within  the  nation.  The  Taber- 
nacle, in  the  wilderness  and  for  the  first  years  of  their 
possession  in  Canaan,  was  God's  national  dwelling- 
place  ;  afterwards  the  costly  temple  by  Solomon  was 
substituted ;  and  here  the  Shechina,  or  cloud  of  the 
Lord's  presence,  perpetually  abode.  Here  the  peo- 
ple came  for  counsel,  brought  their  offerings,  and 
through  the  High  Priest  received  the  sovereign  re- 
sponses. Here  was  his  perpetual  Table  with  the 
Shew-bread,  the  golden  candlestick,  and  the  con- 
stant smoke  of  incense  ;  and  the  entire  tribe  of  Levi 

1  Ex.  xxv.  16.  *  Deut.  xxxi.  15-20. 

8 


114  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

was  assigned  to  be  religious  ministers  and  civil  ser- 
vants of  his  household  ;  and  a  perpetual  revenue  was 
required  in  the  tithes  and  offerings  of  first  fruits  and 
portions  of  the  sacrifices. 

Among  the  most  remarkable  manifestations  of  his 
presence  and  authority  was  the  stated  application 
of  special  providences  in  rewards  and  punishments. 
It  was  openly  assumed  and  declared,  that  God  would 
so  deal  with  them  as  with  no  other  people,  and  direct- 
ly suit  his  providences  to  their  conduct.  No  enemy 
should  molest  them  in  their  faithful  keeping  of  Sab- 
bath days  and  the  sabbatical  year ;  the  land  was 
every  seventh  year  neither  to  be  sowed  nor  eared, 
and  at  the  Jubilee,  two  years  together  was  the  land 
to  be  left  fallow,  and  yet  it  was  spontaneously  to  pro- 
duce all  that  should  be  needed  ;  and  all  needed  good 
is  theirs  provided  they  maintain  their  loyalty  and  de- 
votion. But  all  evil  is  threatened  if  rebellious.  So 
their  law  speaks ;  so  their  prophets  preach ;  so  their 
sacred  Psalms  teach  them  ;  and  even  in  some  marked 
cases  the  retribution  for  parental  disloyalty  went 
down  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation.  This  lia- 
bility to  retributions  in  the  posterity  of  the  sinner 
was  a  prerogative  of  God  as  their  king,  but  with- 
holdeii  expressly  from  the  human  magistrates.1  A 
true  Theocracy  may  so  establish  civil  sanctions  in 
this  life,  leaving  each  soul  to  bear  his  own  iniquity 
for  the  future  state,2  for  the  true  God  can  exactly 
discriminate  and  infallibly  execute  ;  but  no  false  god 

1  Deut.  xxiv.  16 ;  2  Chron.  xxv.  3,  4.  2  Ezek.  xviii. 


EXODUS  AND  THE  THEOCRACY.         115 

can  sustain  such  assumption,  nor  could  Moses  have 
afforded  this  legislation  but  as  he  was  the  Lawgiver    ss 
in  a  true  Theocracy. 

While  Jehovah  was  thus  their  chosen  king,  and  the 
legitimate  civil  sovereignty  was  vested  in  him,  and 
all  captains,  judges,  and  kings,  that  afterwards  ad- 
ministered the  government  of  Israel,  were  vicege- 
rents of  him,  yet  in  the  great  transactions  and 
changes  of  the  administration,  the  people  had  an 
acknowledged  and  legitimate  voice,  and  were  rec- 
ognized as  the  source  of  supreme  power  in  the  state 
which  they  had  now  voluntarily  committed  to  a  theo-  / 
cratic  administration.1  So  far  as  left  to  human  ad- 
ministration, the  Hebrew  Commonwealth  was  a  Re- 
public. In  many  respects  the  different  Tribes  were 
independent,  and  sovereign  in  their  own  jurisdiction, 
and  yet  all  the  tribes  for  national  purposes  were  one 
sovereignty,  and  no  one  tribe  could  be  permitted  to 
withdraw  from  the  rest  in  separate  nationality  but  as 
revolutionary  and  rebellious.  While  Egypt  and  all 
surrounding  nations  were  Absolute  Despotisms,  as- 
suming divine  right  to  rule,  and  maintaining  their 
oppression  by  mythological  delusions,  the  Hebrew 
theocracy  kept  prominent  the  liberty  of  the  people,^ 
and  recognized  the  rights  of  the  citizen.  They  as- 
sent to  the  true  God  to  be  their  king,  and  the  true 
God  can  never  administer  an  oppressive  rule.  "  He 
is  the  freeman  whom  the  truth  makes  free,  and  all  are 

1  See  Josh.  ix.  18-21 ;  1  Sara.  x.  24,  xi.  14,  15. 


116  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

slaves  beside."     u  If  the  truth  make  you  free,  you 
shall  be  free  indeed." 

God  took  a  name  distinguishing  him  from  all  other 
gods,  in  which  name  he  was  publicly  to  be  known  as 
their  patron-deity ;  and  in  this  was  another  method 
of  establishing  a  true  theocracy.  When  God  gave 
Moses  his  commission  at  the  burning  bush,  he  first 
announced  himself  as  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob,  and  in  this  as  peculiarly  the  covenant  God  of 
the  Israelites.  Moses  was  despondent  that  the  peo- 
ple could  be  roused  by  references  to  the  patriarchal 
faith,  and  felt  from  his  past  experience  that  they  had 
succumbed  to  Egyptian  influences  too  far  to  be  read- 
ily restored  to  Hebrew  loyalty,  unless  through  some 
further  sign  and  pledge  of  God's  distinctive  appro- 
bation and  protection.  "  Moses  said  unto  God,  Be- 
hold, when  I  come  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and 
shall  say  unto  the-m,  The  God  of  your  fathers  hath 
sent  me  unto  you,  and  they  shall  say  unto  me,  What 
is  his  name  ?  what  shall  I  say  unto  them  ? "  The 
Egyptian  patron-god  is  known  by  name  as  peculiarly 
Egypt's  protector  and  ruler ;  Israel  will  need  a  dis- 
tinct deity,  and  an  appropriated  appellation  attaching 
the  nation  to  him  as  distinguishingly  theirs.  God 
assented  to  the  reasonableness  of  Moses'  proposal, 
,and  took  the  occasion  to  give  himself  a  new  name 
as  the  special  protector  of  the  chosen  people.  "  And 
God  said  unto  Moses,  I  am  that  I  AM  "  —  "  say  unto 
the  children  of  Israel,  I  AM  hath  sent  me  unto  you."  l 

1  Ex.  iii.  13,  14. 


EXODUS  AND  THE  THEOCRACY.         117 

This  name  imports  independent  being,  self-existence, 
and  is  expressed  in  the  Hebrew  language  by  JEHO- 
VAH, as  the  God  who  only  has  underived  being, 
and  from  whom  all  existence  comes ;  and  this  is  now 
first  appropriated  in  connection  with  Israel's  national 
deliverance.  "  And  God  spake  unto  Moses,  and  said 
unto  him,  I  am  Jehovah ;  and  I  appeared  unto  Abra- 
ham, unto  Isaac,  and  unto  Jacob,  by  the  name  of  God 
Almighty,  but  by  my  name  Jehovah  was  I  not  known 
unto  them." l  Of  all  the  many  names  before  applied 
to  God,  here  comes  first  the  appellation  of  the  living 
God,  distinguishing  him  especially  from  all  national 
false  gods,  in  whom  is  no  life ;  and  thus  as  holding 
all  being  in  himself.  JEHOVAH  is  Israel's  full  and 
exhaustless  source  of  all  good.  This  name  was  to  a 
Hebrew  the  most  sacred  possible,  and  by  superstitious 
veneration  became  the  ineffable  name,  which  was  not 
to  be  uttered  by  human  lips. 

Now,  all  the  responsibilities  as  well  as  immunities 
and  privileges  derived  from  a  theocratic  form  of  gov- 
ernment, and  immediate  national  alliance  with  the 
deity,  were  fully  known  to  Israel,  and  a  common  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  people  of  all  neighboring  king- 
doms. The  people  must  obey,  and  worship,  and 
everywhere  acknowledge  allegiance  to  their  own 
patron-deity.  Thus,  as  in  Deuteronomy,2  so  in  many 
other  places,  it  is  assumed  that  the  nations  Israel  had 
conquered  will  each  have  their  patron-god,  and  that 
Israel  will  be  in  danger  of  going  after  them  as  the 

1  Ex.  vi.  3.  a  Deut.  xii.  29-32. 


118  HUMANITY   AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

gods  locally,  as  well  as  nationally,  of  the  countries 
conquered ;  and  they  are  admonished  not  to  have 
any  regard  to  these  old  gods  of  the  place,  for 
Jehovah  their  God  is  Universal  Lord,  and  all  na- 
tions, all  lands,  all  worlds  are  his.  So  the  Amo- 
rites  claimed  the  land  Israel  had  taken  from  them, 
but  Jephtha  at  once  appealed  to  the  common  national 
right  of  appropriating  the  power  of  their  own  pa- 
tron-deity. "  The  Lord  God  of  Israel  hath  dispos- 
sessed the  Amorites  from  before  his  people  Israel, 
and  shouldest  thou  possess  it?  Wilt  thou  not  pos- 
sess that  which  Chemosh  thy  god  giveth  thee  to 
possess?  So,  whomsoever  the  Lord  our  God  shall 
drive  out  from  before  us,  them  will  we  possess."  1 

4.  SPECIAL  ORDINANCES  SEPARATING  ISRAEL  FROM 
GENTILE  IDOLATERS.  —  The  tendency  to  idolatry  was 
so  strong,  and  the  influence  of  pagan  example  so 
universal  and  constant  to  turn  the  chosen  people 
from  their  true  God,  that  at  the  expense  of  all  the 
benefits  of  national  sympathy  and  communion  be- 
tween different  kingdoms,  it  was  necessary  to  keep 
Israel  separate,  and  institute  ordinances  and  cere- 
monial practices  which  should  prove  a  separating 
wall  between  Jew  and  Gentile.  Incidental  evils 
might  occur,  and  national  pride  and  presumption 
be  fostered,  in  Israel  by  perverting  these  remedial 
measures  against  Gentile  superstitions ;  but  the  dan- 

1  Judges  xi.  23,  24.  See  also  1  Sam.  xxvi.  19,  1  Kings  xx.  23, 
and  2  Kings  xvii.  24-33. 


EXODUS  AND  THE  THEOCRACY.         119 

ger  from  public  example  was  so  imminent,  that,  for 
the -time,  seclusion  and  non-intercourse  were  the  only 
safe  expedients.  When  Israel  shall  have  been  weaned 
from  idolatry,  and  the  world  made  ready,  in  the 
Mediator's  coming,  for  universal  brotherhood,  then 
must  such  a  separa ting-wall  between  distinctive  peo- 
ples be  broken  down. 

Among  such  Ordinances  was  that  relative  to  cere- 
monial uncleanness  from  the  dead.  The  touching  of 
a  dead  body,  a  bone,  or  any  human  relic,  defiled  the 
person,  and  excluded  him  from  communion  with  the 
congregation  for  seven  days.1  The  Egyptian  doc- 
trine of  the  metempsychosis  with  its  resulting  prac- 
tice of  embalming  and  preserving  the  dead  was 
sacred,  and  thus  in  Egypt  dead  bodies  and  perpet- 
ual contact  with  them  abounded ;  and  with  such  an 
ordinance  among  the  Hebrews,  nothing  could  more 
effectually  separate  the  two  communities.  What  was 
sacred  to  one  was  abominable  profaneness  to  another. 
And  then,  the  method  of  an  Israelite's  cleansing  from 
uncleanness  by  touching  the  dead  still  very  much 
more  strengthened  the  partition-wall  between  the 
nations.  The  heifer  was  sacred  to  Isis,  and  to  an 
Egyptian  one  who  had  shed  the  blood  or  eaten  the 
flesh  of  a  red  heifer  was  an  abomination.  They 
would  not  use  a  knife  or  any  cooking  utensil  of  a 
foreigner,  nor  by  any  means  eat  with  strangers,  lest 
they  should  come  in  contact  with  that  which  had  be- 
come desecrated  by  violating  the  sanctity  of  Isis. 

1  See  Lev.  xxi.  2  and  11 ;  Num.  ix.  6-14,  xix.  11-16. 


120  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

But  God  instituted  the  very  blood  of  the  Egyptians' 
sacred  red  heifer  to  cleanse  an  Israelite  from  his 
defilement  by  the  dead.  A  red  heifer  must  be  slain, 
the  carcass  burned,  the  ashes  collected  and  mingled 
with  water  ;  and  this  was  preserved  in  readiness,  and 
called  "the  water  of  separation/'  by  which  the  un- 
clean was  to  be  sprinkled,  and  if  he  came  abroad 
without  such  ceremonial  cleansing,  he  was  to  be 
cut  off  from  the  congregation.1  .  A  pidus  Hebrew  and 
an  idolatrous  Egyptian  must  hold  each  other  in  abom- 
ination, and  such  could  not  dwell  together  but  by 
their  conversion  to  a  common  faith  and  practice. 

So,  also,  the  ordinance  of  dean  and  unclean  meats. 
Nothing  is  unclean  of  itself,  but  for  purposes  of  dis- 
cipline, God  made  to  an  Israelite  certain  animals 
ceremonially  unclean ;  and  the  law  of  unclean  meats 
had  manifestly  one  design  of  separating  Israel  from 
idolaters.  With  an  Egyptian,  swine,  dogs,  cats,  mice, 
lizards  and  serpents,  the  crocodile,  and  among  fowls, 
the  hawk,  owl,  and  bat  were  sacred;  dedicated  to 
their  gods,  and  eaten  for  food.  The  Hebrew  Law 
for  clean  and  unclean  animals2  would  necessarily 
separate  them  from  the  Egyptians,  and  in  a  similar 
way  from  the  idolatrous  nations  of  Canaan,  when  they 
should  enter  their  inheritance.3 

Still  further  with  the  ordinance  of  marriage.  An 
Israelite  was  forbidden  from  all  intermarriage  with 
the  heathen  nations ; 4  and  the  reason  given  is,  "  lest 

1  Num.  xix.  2  Lev.  xi. ;  Deut.  xiv. 

3  Lev.  xx.  24-26.  4  Deut.  vii.  3,  4 ;  Josh,  xxiii.  12,  13, 


EXODUS  AND  THE  THEOCRACY.         121 

they  draw  you  away  after  their  gods."  The  violation 
of  this  law  always  evinced  the  expediency  of  its  en- 
actment by  the  deleterious  consequences  of  its  re- 
jection.1 The  Captivity  in  Babylon,  an3  the  strict 
and  severe  execution  of  this  law  of  intermarriage  by 
Ezra  on  their  return,  finally  eradicated  the  Israelitish 
tendency  to  idols.2 

Then  there  was  the  distinct  prohibition  of  several 
leading  idolatrous  superstitions.  Spencer3  says  it 
was  a  custom  with  idolatrous  nations  of  antiquity  to 
stand  over  the  sepulchres  or  bodies  of  the  dead,  and 
pluck  out  or  shave  off  the  hair  of  the  head  or  the 
beard,  letting  it  fall  upon  the  corpse  or  into  the  tomb, 
as  a  devoted  peace-offering  to  the  departed  spirit,  or 
to  evil  demons.  So  the  prohibition  to  Israel  of  "  cut- 
ting the  hair,  marring  the  corners  of  the  beard,  and 
cutting  and  scarring  the  flesh  for  the  dead,7'  4  had  a 
direct  intent  to  exclude  heathenish  superstition.  So, 
again,  Spencer,5  referring  to  the  Mosaic  prohibitions 
of  sowing  a  vineyard  with  different  seeds,  ploughing 
with  an  ox  and  an  ass  together,  wearing  garments  of 
mingled  linen  and  woollen,  and  inducing  different 
species  of  cattle  to  engender  together,6  says  "  idolaters 
designed  to  signify  by  these  mixtures  and  conjunc- 
tures, that  husbandmen  and  shepherds  were  under 
obligation  to  the  favoring  influences  of  the  planets, 
because  they  thought  that  the  plenty  of  wool  on.  the 

1  Num.  xxv.  1-9 ;  1  Kings  xi.  4.       2  Ezra  ix.  and  x. 

9  Leg.  Heb.  B.  II.  chap.  xii.  4  Lev.  xix.  27,  28. 

*  Leg.  Heb.  B.  II.  chap.  xxi.  «  Lev.  xix.  19 ;  Deut.  xxii.  9-11. 


122  HUMANITY  AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

animal,  and  of  linen  in  the  fields,  were  from  the  favor 
of  the  stars."  And  quoting  from  another  aulhor  in 
the  same  place,  "  All  these  mixtures  are  prohibited 
in  detestation  of  idolatry,  because  the  Egyptians,  in 
veneration  of  the  stars,  made  divers  commixtures  of 
seeds,  and  animals,  and  in  their  garments,  thus  rep- 
resenting different  conjunctions  of  the  planets."  And 
to  the  same  purport  is  the  prohibition  to  seethe  a 
kid  in  its  mother's  milk.1  Bishop  Patrick,  com.  in  loco, 
says,  "  Rabbi  Abarbinel  affirms,  the  ancient  idolaters 
were  accustomed,  when  they  gathered  the  fruits  of 
the  earth,  to  seethe  a  kid  in  his  mother's  milk,  that 
the  gods  might  be  propititious  to  them."  And  Cud- 
worth,  on  the  Lord's  Supper,2  quotes  a  Karaite  Jew 
as  saying,  "  It  was  a  custom  of  the  ancient  heathen, 
when  they  had  gathered  in  all  their  fruits,  to  take  a 
kid  and  boil  it  in  the  dam's  milk,  and  then,  in  a  magi- 
cal way,  to  go  about  and  besprinkle  with  it  all  their 
trees,  fields,  gardens,  and  orchards,  thinking  by  this 
means  they  should  make  them  fructify  more  abun- 
dantly the  following  year."  Thus  what  might  seem 
trifling,  and  even  supersitious,  legislation,  is  seen  to 
have  a  serious  and  direct  bearing  against  all  super- 
stition, as  then  insnaringly  abounding. 

To  all  the  above  may  be  finally  added  the  solemn 
prohibition  to  "  pass  through  the  fire  to  Moloch." 3 
Rabbi  Maimonides,  Mor.  Nev.  Part  III.  c.  37  :  "  This 
was  one  great  artifice  of  idolatrous  priests  to  work 

1  Ex.  xxiii.  19,  xxxiv.  26;  Deut.  xiv.  21.  2  Chap.  ii. 

3  Lev.  xviii.  21,  xx.  1-5;  Deut.  xviii.  10. 


TEACHING  UNDER  A   DOUBLE-SENSE.  123 

upon  the  superstitious  temper  of  weak  men.  They 
knew  that  they  feared  nothing  more  than  the  loss 
of  their  children,  and  thus  the  worshippers  of  fire 
taught,  that  if  they  did  not  make  their  sons  and 
daughters  pass  through  the  fire,  all  their  children 
would  die."  And  Lowman l  says,  "  Such  purifications 
were  well  understood  to  be  an  act  of  consecration  to 
Moloch,  the  son,  or  prince,  of  the  heavenly  host.  Sub- 
sequently, they  not  only  passed  through  the  fire  as 
devoted  to  the  idol,  but  were  literally  burnt  as  an 
offering  to  the  god." 


SECTION  Y. 

SPECIAL  TRUTHS  OF  REDEMPTION   TAUGHT  UNDER  A 
DOUBLE-SENSE. 

/ 

THE  Theocracy  was  a  form  of  civil  government  for 
the  nation,  and  in  the  conditions  of  the  Hebrew  peo- 
ple was  the  form  most  expedient  for  their  freedom 
and  prosperity;  but  it  looked  much  further  than 
their  national  freedom  and  power,  and  was  indeed 
itself  wholly  subservient  to  a  higher  spiritual  design. 
It  was  best  adapted  to  make  and  keep  the  people  to 
be  worshippers  of  the  one  true  God,  and  to  spread 
the  knowledge  and  worship  of  Jehovah  among  other  * 

1  Rationale  of  Heb.  Rit.  p.  232. 


124  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

nations;  and  still  spiritual  in  a  further  sense  than 
teaching  the  doctrine  and  service  of  one  true  God, 
even  the  doctrine  of  the  promised  redemption  of  hu- 
manity from  the  curse  consequent  upon  the  fall  and 
depravity  of  the  race.  The  Hebrew  nation  was  to  be 
free  and  powerful,  and  also  worshippers  of  the  one 
true  God,  for  the  further  end  that  they  might  be 
taught,  and  then  might  teach  others,  the  mystery  of 
God's  plan  for  recovering  a  fallen  race  again  to  holi- 
ness and  heaven.  Inasmuch  as  God  is  civil-Ruler 
not  only,  but  also  patron-Deity,  we  should  anticipate 
that  his  legislation  will  include  institutions  directly 
bearing  upon  Israel's  needed  preparation  for  the  Re- 
deemer's coming,  and  in  their  preparation  as  a  chosen 
people  thereby  making  the  world  ready  for  the  com- 
ing of  its  promised  deliverer. 

Their  Egyptian  experience  had  accustomed  them 
to  be  taught  spiritual  doctrines  by  divinely  appointed 
ceremonies,  as  well  as  civil  duties  by  direct  divine 
enactments.  There  were  the  common  funeral  cere- 
monies and  sacrificial  observances,  to  which  all  had 
access,  and  where  were  taught  the  exoteric  or  public 
doctrine  of  the  gods ;  and  there  were  the  higher  mys- 
teries, to  which  statesmen,  priests,  and  philosophers 
were  initiated,  and  in  which  the  esoteric  or  hidden 
and  profoundly  speculative  teachings  were  presented ; 
and  in  each,  appointed  and  arranged  rites  and  signifi- 
cant representations  were  exhibited.  And  so  we 
shall  find  in  God's  legislation  for  Israel  sacrificial 
rites  and  ceremonial  observances,  required  from  all 


TEACHING   UNDER   A   DOUBLE-SENSE.  125 

the  people  as  national  institutions  and  ordinances,  and 
which  are  directly  calculated  to  subserve  order  and 
national  liberty,  and  to  exclude  idolatry  and  promote 
true  piety ;  while  they  reach  much  further,  and  teach 
the  truths  yet  little  comprehended  of  God's  wonder- 
ful plan  of  redemption.  Both  the  lower  and  the 
higher  ends  are  contained  in  the  same  required  ob- 
servances, and  the  serious  and  thoughtful  perform- 
ance, by  one  who  sees  only  the  lower  design,  will 
tend  directly  to  bring  him  up  to  the  apprehension 
and  adoption  of  the  higher.  The  divinely  appointed 
forms  are  significant  of  real  things,  and  foreshadow 
coming  substances,  and  a  devout,  habitual  observance 
opens  the  mind  to  expect,  and  prepares  it  to  embrace, 
the  reality  at  the  time  of  its  manifestation.  It  was 
a  wise  and  effective  system  of  national  education, 
bringing  the  people  gradually  up  from  sensual  appre- 
hension to  spiritual  discernment.  The  Mosaic  Eitual. 
as  an  entire  system,  is  thus  a  schoolmaster  to  bring 
the  nation  to  the  coming  Messiah ;  but  we  need  now 
to  allude  only  to  some  more  prominent  instances  of 
its  mode  of  teaching  as  specimens  of  the  whole. 

1.  THE  PASSOVER  FEAST.  —  The  meaning  designed 
as  the  most  direct  and  obvious  in  the  Passover  was 
a  memorial  of  God's  gracious  interposition  in  deliver- 
ing the  Hebrews  from  their  Egyptian  bondage ;  and 
as  this  was  so  signal  and  effective  at  the  opening  of 
their  national  independence,  it  was  ever  after  held  as 
one  of  the  most  prominent  of  Hebrew  observances. 


126  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

It  was  instituted  by  God  at  the  time  of  the  last  judg- 
ment upon  Pharaoh  and  the  Egyptians  in  the  slaying 
of  their  first-born,  and  which  for  the  time  subdued 
the  stubbornness  of  Israel's  oppressors.  All  the  forms 
observed  were  minutely  appropriate  to  such  memo- 
rial. The  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  the  paschal-lamb  ; 
eating  the  flesh  with  bitter  herbs ;  doing  it  in  haste, 
and  with  loins  girt,  and  shoes  on,  and  staves  in  hand ; 
and  the  exclusion  of  all  leaven,  —  all  commemorated 
their  bitter  bondage,  the  discriminating  favor  of  the 
destroying  angel,  and  their  speedy  remove  from  the 
land  of  their  oppressors,  as  given  in  full  in  Exodus.1 
It  was  made  a  perpetual  monition  of  the  supremacy 
of  Jehovah,  their  God,  over  all  the  gods  of  Egypt. 

Here  was,  however,  but  its  lower  application.  The 
same  ceremony  was  comprehensive  of  a  higher -mean- 
ing. It  was  designed  as  truly  for  a  type  of  human 
redemption  as  for  a  memorial  of  Hebrew  deliverance. 
The  Paschal  Lamb  foretokened  "the  Lamb  of  God 
slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,"  and  the 
necessity  that  "  Christ  our  Passover  should  be  sacri- 
ficed for  us,"  as  intentionally  by  God,  as  it  recalled 
the  sparing  of  Israel's  first-born  when  in  Egyptian 
families  "  there  was  not  a  house  wherein  was  not  one 
dead."  It  was  subsequently  ordered  in  divine  provi- 
dence, that  Christ's  crucifixion  occurred  at  the  day 
and  hour  in  the  year  for  the  killing  of  the  Passover 
victim  according  to  the  Hebrew  Ritual.2  And  the 

1  Ex.  xii.  and  xiii. 

*  See  Matt,  xxvii.  62 ;  Luke  xxii.  7-20 ;  John  xix.  14. 


TEACHING  UNDER  A  DOUBLE-SENSE.       127 

Lord's  Supper  then  was  made  the  memorial  of  Christ's 
death,  instead  of  the  Passover  as  typical  of  it.  The 
hidden  meaning  of  the  Passover  came  more  and  more 
fully  out,  to  the  pious  and  thoughtful  Israelite,  till 
the  nation  and  the  world  became  ready  for  the  re- 
demption sacrifice  of  the  Lamb  of  God. 

2.  THE  CEREMONY  OF  THE  SCAPE-GOAT.  —  This  was 
included  in  the  complex  ceremony  of  the  sin-offering, 
which  involved  both  a  sacrifice  and  a  sign  of  remis- 
sion. A  bullock  was  to  be  slain,  and  the  blood 
sprinkled  before  the  holy-place,  and  put  upon  the 
horns  of  the  altar.  Two  young  goats  were  then 
selected,  one  of  which  was  slain,  and  the  blood 
sprinkled  like  that  of  the  bullock,  while  the  other 
was  let  go  alive  into  the  wilderness,  after  the  formal 
laying  of  the  high  priest's  hands  on  the  head,  and  con- 
fessing over  it  the  sins  of  the  people.  Both  the  high 
priest  and  all  connected  in  this  transaction  were  made 
unclean  by  it,  and  the  parts  of  the  victims  were 
carried  without  the  camp  and  burned  with  fire ;  sig- 
nifying the  impurity  of  the  sinner  as  abominable  to 
God,  and  transferring  his  uncleanness  to  all  commun- 
ing with  him.  To  a  common  Israelite  this  lower  na- 
tional defilement  and  its  removal  by  ceremonial  sub- 
stitution were  all  that  he  apprehended.  But  in  God's 
design,  in  addition  to  this  there  was  a  deeper  meaning. 
It  typified  the  expiation  of  human  guilt  by  the  substitu- 
tion of  Christ's  atoning  sacrifice,  and  led  the  thought- 
ful mind  to  look  to  more  precious  blood  than  that  of 


128  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

bulls  and  goats,  which  could  only  ceremonially,  and 
not  literally  and  eternally,  take  away  sin.  Hence 
Christ  is  termed  a  sin-offering,1  and  is  said  to  have 
"  suffered  without  the  gate ;  "  2  and  his  sacrifice  is  the 
"  taking  away  "  of  the  sins  of  the  world.3 

3.  THE  CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  TABERNACLE  AND 
TEMPLE,  AND  SERVICES  CONNECTED  WITH  THEM.  —  In 
their  common  and  primary  intent,  their  construction 
and  use  manifested  the  presence  and  power  of  Jeho- 
vah, their  God  and  King,  in  the*  midst  of  them,  and 
confirming  the  national  allegiance  to  him.  The  cere- 
monial services  were  national  atonements,  and  legal 
purifications,  propitiatory  towards  their  tutelar-deity, 
and  standing  to  them  as  a  civil  community  in  distinc- 
tion from  ,the  idolatrous  temples  and  altars  peculiar 
respectively  to  other  organized  communities  about 
them.  But  a  much  higher  end  was  to  be  attained, 
and  a  deeper  meaning  was  put  into  the  tabernacle 
and  temple  service.  Hence  the  precision  with  which 
Moses  was  required  to  fashion  every  part,  and  to  "  see 
that  he  made  all  things  according  to  the  pattern 
shown  in  the  mount."  4  An  extended  explanation  of 
this  is  given  by  the  author  of  the  Hebrews,  especial- 
ly in  the  fifth,  eighth,  ninth,  and  tenth  chapters.  The 
temple  is  taken  as  a  figure,  a  hieroglyphical  repre- 
sentation of  the  coming  Gospel  Kingdom.  The  High 
Priest  is  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  blood  of  the 

1  2  Cor.  v.  21.  2  Heb.  xiii.  11,  12. 

3  John  i.  29.  4  Ex.  xxv.  40. 


TEACHING  UNDER   A   DOUBLE-SENSE.  129 

sacrifices  is  for  his  atoning  blood ;  the  holy  of  holies  is 
heaven,  into  which  this  High  Priest  has  entered,  for- 
ever making  intercession  ;  and  the  entire  ritual  stands 
as  the  shadow  of  realities  that  are  coming.  They 
could  better  be  understood  after  Christ  had  come,  and 
died,  and  risen  again;  but  the  very  shadows  taught  the 
studious  Israelite  much,  and  made  the  nation  and  the 
world  anticipate  largely  the  truths  of  Christ's  redemp- 
tion before  he  came  and  substantially  fulfilled  them. 

In  addition,  thus,  to  the  promises  more  and  more 
full  from  time  to  time,  and  the  prophecies  more  and 
more  clear  from  age  to  age,  and  the  provision  of  scribes, 
and  priests,  and  schools  of  the  nation  for  transcribing, 
and  reading,  and  expounding  the  divine  law,  there 
was  a  prepared  system  of  symbols  and  ceremonies 
with  a  common  meaning  for  all,  and  a  deeper  and  more 
important  meaning  for  those  capable  of  spiritual  dis- 
cernment. 

4.  THIS  METHOD  OF  INSTRUCTION  BY  DOUBLE-MEAN- 
ING REQUIRES  CAREFUL  DISCRIMINATION.  —  Many  words 
are  used  with  different  meanings,  and  sometimes  the 
same  word  has  directly  opposite  meanings.  The  words 
life  and  death  may  have  a  large  variety  of  significa- 
tions, and  a  careful  attention  to  the  connection  can 
alone,  in  some  cases,  distinguish  which  is  there  the 
true  meaning.  The  word  let  may  mean  to  permit 
or  to  hinder ;  and  the  word  prevent,  which  primarily 
means  a  fore-going,  may  be  applied  in  the  opposite 
senses  of  going  before  to  block  up,  or  to  open  the 
9 


130  HUMANITY   AWAITING   EEDEMPTION. 

way.  One  may  studiously  use  these  ambiguous  words 
with  intent  to  perplex,  and  make  his  speech  a  riddle  ; 
or  with  intent  to  deceive,  and  make  his  speech  men- 
dacious. The  first  is  trifling,  the  second  is  lying ;  and 
by  no  such  "  paltering  in  a  double  sense  "  can  direct 
instruction  be  given.  The  Mosaic  ritual  employs 
nothing  of  this  form  of  double-meaning. 

There  is,  further,  an  assumed  form  of  interpreting 
any  scripture,  by  taking  its  plain,  literal  facts  and 
incidents  as  of  no  account  in  themselves,  and  afford- 
ing no  historic  nor  narrated  instruction,  but  as  a  cor- 
responding spiritual  meaning  is  made  out  from  them. 
"  A  system  of  correspondencies  "  is  invented,  and  all 
plain  statement  and  historic  narrative  is  void  of  all 
meaning,  except  as  the  suggested  spiritual  truth  is 
attained.  To  a  lively  fancy,  such  spiritualizing  of  all 
plain  speech  may  be  very  captivating,  and  taken  also 
to  be  very  pious,  but  no  solid  instruction  can  be  so 
imparted  or  received,  for  nothing  determines  whether 
the  writer  and  the  interpreter  have  the  same  spiritual 
meaning  in  common.  This  can  hardly  be  known  as 
double-sense,  for  one  sense  only  is  of  any  importance, 
and  the  unimportant  sense  is  too  empty  to  be  made 
a  medium  for  any  reliable  spiritual  communication. 
Not  thus  does  God,  in  any  part  of  his  Word,  allow  us 
to  presume  that  we  have  truly  caught  his  intentional 
Q/  spiritual  meaning. 

Certain  acts  may  be  so  plainly  representative  of 
certain  other  events,  that  the  former  may  intentionally 
be  made  use  of  to  express  and  teach  the  latter.  Such 


TEACHING   UNDER   A   DOUBLE-SENSE.  131 

methods  of  communication  God  not  unfrequently  em- 
ploys. By  divine  direction,  Isaiah  walks  three  years, 
naked  and  barefoot,  to  warn  Egypt  of  the  coming  in- 
vasion and  captivity  of  the  Assyrians.1  Jeremiah 
hides  his  girdle  in  a  rock  until  it  is  marred,  to  teach 
that  destruction  is  imminent  for  Judah.2  Ezekiel  por- 
trays the  siege  of  a  city  upon  a  tile,  sets  up  an  iron 
pan  as  a  wall  of  defence,  &c.,  representing  the  coming' 
siege  of  Jerusalem.3  And  by  representative  acts, 
Christ  taught  humility  and  kindness  by  washing  the 
disciples'  feet.4  And  Agabus  warned  Paul  of  coming 
persecution  by  binding  himself  with  Paul's  girdle.5 
The  act  is  made  intelligently  expressive  of  the  intent, 
and  so  truly  teaches  the  intended  lesson ;  and  such 
teaching  by  signs  is  frequent,  legitimate,  and  emphatic. 
It  is,  however,  hardly  double-sense  ;  for  the  represen- 
tation, though  striking,  has  but  one  meaning,  and 
the  sign  truly  communicates  that  meaning  only. 

There  may  be  such  use  of  language  as  inten- 
tionally to  convey  an  obvious  meaning  to  one  class  of 
minds,  and  at  th£  same  time  have  another  meaning 
designed  to  be  apprehended  by  another  class,  or  by 
the  first  class  in  another  stage  of  improvement.  There 
are  truly  two  meanings,  one  apprehended  by  some, 
and  both  apprehended  by  others,  and  God  may  use 
language  designed  for  the  communication  of  such 
form  of  double-meaning.  So  in  relation  to  the  trial 
and  temptation  of  our  first  parents.  The  agency  of 

1  Isa.  xx.  2-4.  2  Jer.  xiii.  1-11.  3  Ezek.  iv.  1-17. 

4  John  xiii.  4-19.  6  Acts  xxi.  11. 


132  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

the  serpent  was  designed  to  be  expressed,  and  this 
was  at  once  apprehended ;  but  just  as  certainly  was 
the  agency  of  the  devil  meant  to  be  included,  though 
not  apprehended  till  a  later  generation.1  So  also  the 
rest  in  Canaan  was  one  meaning  of  Psalm  xcv.  11,  but 
this  included  also  the  meaning  of  the  rest  of  the  Sab- 
bath and  the  rest  of  heaven.2  Psalm  Ixix.  has  primary 
reference  to  David,  but  it  was  so  expressed  as  also  to 
include  the  sufferings  of  Christ  and  the  treachery  of 
his  enemies.3  And  especially  predictions  of  future 
events  are  not  seldom  given  in  a  double-meaning. 
Psalm  Ixxii.  applies  directly  to  Solomon,  but  has  its 
adequate  fulfilment  only  in  Christ ;  and  Joel,  i.  and  IL, 
has  intentionally  the  two  meanings  of  an  army  of 
locusts  and  of  the  Assyrian  army ;  and  the  foretelling 
of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem4  also  includes  the 
prediction  of  the  end  of  the  world  and  the  final  judg- 
ment. In  a  rhetorical  figure,  or  the  use  of  a  parable, 
only  one  meaning  is  given ;  but  here  two  distinct 
meanings  are  contained,  and  designed,  by  some  minds 
at  some  time,  to  be  both  distinctly  understood. 

And  this  use  of  a  double-sense  is  still  more  directly 
employed  in  teaching  higher  truths  in  connection  with 
a  lower  and  more  familiar  meaning,  by  what  is  prop- 
erly typical  representation.  A  type  differs  from  a 
sign  in  that  it  has  two  senses,  and  the  sign  but  one 
intended  meaning.  The  Passover,  as  a  sign,  meant 

1  Gen.  iii.    Cf*  John  viii.  44 ;     Heb.  ii.   14,   15 ;    1  -John  iii.   8 ; 
Rev.  xii.  9. 

2  Heb.  iii.  and  iv.  3  Cf.  John  xix.  28,  29 ;  Acts  i.  20. 
4  Matt.  xxiv. 


THEOCRATIC   SERVICE   SPIRITUAL.  133 

only  Israel's  deliverance,1  but  as  a  type,  it  included 
Christ's  redemption ;  2  and  this,  in  common  with  many 
other  typical  ceremonies,  God  extensively  and  suc- 
cessfully used  in  the  instruction  of  his  chosen  people. 
One  common  meaning,  studied  and  followed  out  in  its 
leading  direction,  opened  fairly  into  higher  light  and 
more  important  truth.  Nothing  was  deceptive  or  de- 
lusive, much  less  false  or  contradictory  ;  both  mean- 
ings were  true,  desirable  to  be  apprehended ;  but  the 
last  was  best  attained  by  coming  to  it  through  the 
study  and  practice  of  the  first. 

5.  THE  THEOCRATIC  RITUAL  DEMANDED  A  SPIRITUAL 
OBSERVANCE.  —  We  have  not  unfrequently,  but  very 
superficially,  the  derogatory  assumption  that  the  He- 
brew ritual  was  a  mere  system  of  sensible,  formal 
observances,  tending  rather  to  superstition  than  spir- 
ituality, and  cherishing  self-righteousness  rather  than 
inward  holiness.  And  the  reproach  is  often  extended 
to  the  whole  Old  Testament,  as  the  sacred  oracles  of 
the  Israelites,  that  they  present  God  as  severe,  vin- 
dictive, an  object  of  fear  rather  than  of  trust  and 
love ;  and  the  religion  inculcated  to  be  a  gross  and 
selfish  servility  towards  God,  and  supercilious  con- 
tempt and  hate  towards  other  nations.  But  with  the 
world  as  it  was.,  and  humanity  as  it  had  developed 
itself  in  that  age,  and  the  idolatry  and  cruelty  and 
sensuality  everywhere  abounding,  and  the  necessity 
that  the  true  Theocracy  should  take  the  chosen  seed 

1  Ex.  xii.  14-27.  2  1  Cor.  v.  7. 


134  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

as  it  was  in  itself,  and  with  its  surrounding  influences ; 
and  the  plain  truth  is,  that  the  adaptation  of  the  whole 
Hebrew  government,  in  it3  civil  enactments  and  reli- 
gious ordinances,  to  civilize  and  spiritualize  the  rising 
generations  of  Israel,  is  so  direct  and  wise,  and  in  its 
results  so  effective  and  successful,  that  it  proves  its 
superhuman  origin,  and  has  no  lower  source  than  the 
infinite  wisdom,  and  power,  and  goodness  of  Jehovah. 
The  grace  of  the  gospel  could  not  have  been  reached 
by  the  generations  of  man,  and  the  plan  of  redemp- 
tion could  not  have  found  an  age  ready  that  its  won- 
ders should  have  been  wrought  in  it,  except  through 
just  such  an  intervention  as  the  call  of  Abraham,  and 
the  legislation  of  Moses,  and  the  subsequent  teaching 
of  divine  prophecy  and  providence  secured. 

The  Theocracy  taught  that  God  was  one ;  was  a 
spirit  that  could  not  have  any  material  likeness ;  and 
that,  though  the  heaven  of  heavens  could  not  contain 
him,  yet  that,  in  very  deed,  he  dwelt  with  men  ;  and 
though  he  did  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty,  yet  was 
he  the  "  Lord  God,  merciful  and  gracious,  long-suffer- 
ing, and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth,  keeping 
mercy  for  thousands,  and  forgiving  iniquity,  trans- 
gression, and  sin."  No  formal  obedience  alone  could 
be  acceptable,  and  the  very  formality  of  the  divinely 
instituted  ritual  demanded,  and  was  designed  to  se- 
cure, a  pure  service  of  the  heart.1  No  language  can 
more  fully  or  forcibly  enjoin  a  hearty  service,  or  show 

1  See  Ex.  xxxiv.  7;  Lev.  xix.  1,  2:  Deut.  x.  12-19,  xxx.  6; 
1  Sam.  xvi.  7;  Ps.  xv.  1-3,  li.  1-17;  Isa.  i.  10-20,  Ixvi.  2; 
Joel  ii.  12,  13. 


THEOCRACY  TO   THE  CAPTIVITY.  135 

the  law  more  completely  written  on  and  filling  the 
heart,  than  such  expressions  and  the  experiences  re- 
corded by  the  Psalmist.1 

So  with  the  civil  and  religious  polity  of  Israel :  the 
grand  design  was  the  establishment  of  a  free  and 
powerful  nation;  to  cultivate  them  in  the  arts  of 
peace,  and  inculcate  pure  morality  and  national  piety ; 
and  though  necessarily,  in  their  ignorance  and  dark- 
ness, appealing  to  sense,  yet  in  such  a  way  as  most 
effectually  to  reach,  elevate,  and  purify  the  spirit. 
While  all  the  other  peoples  of  the  world  continued 
in  their  idolatry  and  polytheistic  superstitions,  the 
Hebrew  people,  with  frequent  lapses  and  many 
apostasies,  still  preserved  the  faith  and  worship  of 
the  true  God,  and  taught  the  nations  to  expect  the 
advent  of  a  Divine  Prince  and  Saviour. 


SECTION    VI. 

ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  THEOCRACY  TO  THE 
BABYLONIAN   CAPTIVITY. 

THE  encampment  of  Israel  at  Sinai  continued  about 
eleven  months,  during  which  period  the  law  was 
given  and  the  tabernacle  made  and  furnished  ac- 
cording to  minutely  specific  directions;  and  hence- 
forth the  established  form  of  worship  was  maintained, 

1  Ps.  xix.,  IxiiL,  Ixxxiv.,  cxix.,  &c. 


136  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

sacrifices  offered,  and  ceremonies  observed  according 
to  the  directions  of  the  inspired  Ritual.  The  Shechi- 
na,  or  bright  appearance  of  God's  presence  and  glory, 
was  perpetually  with  the  nation,  and  gave  to  them 
the  direction  of  their  future  movements  by  peculiar 
indications  when  to  move  and  where  to  encamp.1 
God  was  thus  manifestly  in  the  midst  of  them,  and 
known  by  them  as  Jehovah,  their  national  King  and 
patron-Deity.  It  was,  however,  convenient  and  ex- 
pedient that  a  human  ruler  should  be  interposed 
between  the  divine  king  and  people,  and  it  was  the 
prerogative  of  God  to  indicate  his  will  in  the  deter- 
mination of  whom  it  should  be  that  they  were  to 
acknowledge  as  his  vicegerent  in  the  government. 
While  the  transactions  at  Sinai  had  been  in  progress, 
the  will  of  God  had  been  fully  manifested  that  Moses 
was  his  lawgiver  and  constituted  leader.2  When,  after- 
wards, Moses'  authority  was  questioned  and  resisted, 
God  vindicated  it  terribly  and  effectually.3 

1.  THE  THEOCRACY  UNDER  MOSES. — Just  thirteen 
months  and  twenty  days  from  the  exodus,4  the  Israel- 
ites, by  the  command  of  Moses  from  the  Lord,  took 
their  departure  from  Sinai,  and  the  cloud  of  the  Lord 
was  taken  up  from  the  tabernacle,  and  the  tribes 
followed  in  their  prescribed  order,  with  their  stan- 
dards, officers,  and  people,  and  the  cloud  next  rested 

1  Num.  ix.  15-23. 

2  Ex.  xxiv.  9-18,  xxxii.  33,  34,  xxxiii.  8-11,  xxxiv.  29-35. 

3  Num.  xii.  1-15,  xvi.  1-35.  4  Num.  x.  11. 


THEOCRACY   TO   THE   CAPTIVITY.  137 

iii  the  wilderness  of  Paran.  So,  journeying  from  day 
to  day  direct  towards  Canaan,  they  came  in  a  short 
time  to  the  borders  of  their  promised  possession, 
and  a  man  from  each  tribe  constituted  a  commission 
to  go  through  the  land  and  return  a  true  report. 
Within  forty  days  they  return,  and  report  in  great 
praise  of  the  country ;  but  all  except  two,  Joshua  and 
Caleb,  are  terrified  and  utterly  unmanned  by  the 
power  of  the  people  and  the  defence  of  their  cities. 
"  We  be  not  able  to  go  against  this  people."  "  We 
were  in  our  own  sight  as  grasshoppers,  and  so  we 
were  in  their  sight."  * 

With  this  report  the  timid  Israelites  were  over- 
whelmed with  despair,  and  evince  how  little  they  are 
prepared  to  conquer  their  promised  inheritance,  and 
take  an  independent  place  amid  powerful  nations. 
They  murmur  and  clamorously  rebel,  and  determine 
to  make  themselves  "a  captain  and  return  to  Egypt." 
The  contradictory  report  of  Joshua  and  Caleb,  and 
the  interposed  persuasion  of  Aaron,  and  the  authority 
of  Moses,  avail  nothing ;  they  become  furious  and 
headstrong  in  their  riotous  purpose,  and  proceed  to 
stone  all  opposed.2  A  more  courageous  and  disci- 
plined generation  must  come  up,  or  the  great  designs 
of  their  fathers'  covenant  and  promise  must  fail.  In 
the  midst  of  their  turbulent  frenzy  and  obstinacy,  the 
glory  of  the  Lord  in  the  tabernacle  suddenly  mani- 
fested the  divine  displeasure,  and  in  terrible  majesty 
Jehovah  declares  that  he  is  about  to  destroy  them 

1  Num.  xiii.  27-33.  2  Num.  xiv.  1-10. 


138  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

utterly  and  instantly.  Moses  interceded,  and  Jehovah 
spared,  but  announced  that  they  should  all  turn  back 
into  the  wilderness,  and  journey  and  die  there  in  their 
wandering  till  another  generation  should  be  born  and 
disciplined,  worthy  with  Joshua  and  Caleb  to  go  over 
Jordan  and  plant  their  divine  institutions  in  the  land. 
While  this  enunciation  was  being  given,  the  ten 
cowardly  spies  died  by  a  plague  from  the  Lord,  and 
the  mutiny  was  hushed ;  but  the  spirit  of  the  people 
was  no  more  loyal  than  before.  In  spite  of  warnings 
and  prohibitions,  they  desperately  presumed  to  go 
against  the  Canaanites,  and  ascended  "  to  the  hill-top," 
where  the  Amalekites  and  Canaanites  discomfit  and 
destroy  them.1  There  is  no  alternative  to  the  sur- 
vivors but  to  go  back  to  the  wilderness  till  "  their 
carcasses  fall  there." 

u  After  the  number  of  the  days  in  which  ye  searched 
the  land,  even  forty  days,  each  day  for  a  year  shall  ye 
bear  your  iniquities,  even  forty  years ; "  2  so  God 
threatened,  and  so  God  dealt  by  them,  and  effected 
the  necessary  training  of  a  disciplined,  hardy,  coura- 
geous generation.  In  Numbers3  is  given  the  record 
of  their  wanderings  and  several  encampments,  and 
directly  under  Moses'  leading  and  Jehovah's  super- 
vision they  gained  the  confirmed  habit  of  orderly 
conduct  and  prompt  obedience.  By  removals  and 
restings  of  the  glory  of  his  presence,  the  Lord  con- 
trolled their  marches  and  encampments.4  And  by 

1  Num.  xiv.  10-45.  2  Num.  xiv.  34. 

3  Chap,  xxxiii.  4  Num.  ix.  15-23. 


THEOCRACY   TO   THE   CAPTIVITY.  139 

precise  arrangements  and  relative  positions  to  each 
other  and  to  the  tabernacle,  with  their  captains, 
Moses  systematized  all  their  movements  with  mili- 
tary exactness,1  and  thereby  made  them  to  become 
both  good  soldiers  and  good  citizens.  They  learned 
subordination,  precision,  prompt  execution ;  and  from 
long  slavery  there  came  out  a  race  of  hardy  and 
trusty  freemen. 

Aaron,  Moses'  brother  and  high  priest,  died  at  Mount 
Hor,  and  his  son  Eleazer  was  designated  by  God,  and 
invested  by  Moses  with  the  office  of  high  priest;2 
and  then,  a  short  time  after,  when  they  made  their 
second  approach  to  Canaan,  Moses  ascended  Mount 
Nebo  by  God's  direction,  and  from  the  pinnacle  of 
Pisgah  looked  westward  over  the  Jordan,  and  saw  the 
outspread  hills  and  plains  of  Canaan,  and  died  there 
alone  with  God  in  the  mountain,  "  and  the  Lord  buried 
him."  3  Besides  particular  transgressions  of  Aaron 
and  Moses,  by  which  they  forfeited  the  favor  of  per- 
sonally entering  the  promised  inheritance  of  Israel, 
there  was  a  national  result  to  be  attained  in  their  suc- 
cessive deaths  and  the  transmission  of  their  offices  to 
other  incumbents.  It  accustomed  the  people  to  the 
necessary  succession  of  magistrates,  and  habituated 
them  to  expect  and  respect  the  appointments  of  God 
in  the  places  of  the  dead.  Had  Moses  and  Aaron 
lived  to  go  over  Jordan,  and  added  the  veneration 
and  affection  which  would  ensue  from  conquering  the 
land  for  them  to  all  the  influence  of  their  counsel  and 

1  Num.  x.  11-28.         2  Num.  xx.  22-29.         3  Deut.  xxxiv.  1-6. 


140  HUMANITY  AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

command  in  the  forty  years'  wanderings  from  the  exo- 
dus, it  would  have  been  a  more  difficult  matter  to 
content  the  people  with  any  successors  of  such  emi- 
nent leaders ;  but  by  the  removing  of  their  rulers  at 
different  times,  and  dividing  the  glory  of  the  grand 
events  and  achievements  from  Egypt  to  the  possession 
of  Canaan,  the  people  readily  learned  submission  and 
obedience  to  such  as  Jehovah  should  appoint  for  them. 

2.  THE  ADMINISTRATION  OP  THE  THEOCRACY  UNDER 
JOSHUA.  —  All  the  generation  which  left  Egypt  were 
now  dead,  except  Joshua  and  Caleb,  the  faithful  com- 
missioners who  had  spied  the  land  thirty-nine  years 
before  ;  and  thus,  besides  these  two,  all  Israel's  thou- 
sands were  under  sixty  years  of  age,  counting  those 
then  under  twenty  years  who  had  not  been  numbered 
at  Sinai.1  Here,  then,  were  a  people  in  full  vigor, 
hardy  and  independent,  disciplined  and  taught  by  se- 
vere experiences  to  trust  and  obey  their  officers,  and 
acknowledge  Jehovah  as  their  King  and  Lord.  Joshua 
had  already,  by  God,  been  invested  with  the  office  of 
chief  captain  in  Moses'  stead,  and  been  specially  com- 
missioned to  make  full  conquest  of  the  land  of  Canaan, 
and  promised  the  constant  presence  and  counsel  of 
Jehovah.2  Within  three  days  he  roused  the  people 
to  prepare  for  the  expedition ;  made  Reuben,  Gad,  and 
the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh,  whose  possessions  had 
already  been  assigned  them  east  of  the  Jordan,  to  join 
in  the  war  of  conquest ;  and  sending  two  men  to  spy 

1  Num.  xiv.  29.  2  Josh.  i.  1-9. 


THEOCRACY   TO   THE   CAPTIVITY.  141 

the  land,  he  marched,  and  made  his  military  encamp- 
ment on  the  east  bank  of  the  Jordan.  Here  again 
were  three  days'  solemn  preparation,  and  receiving 
divine  directions  for  following  the  sacred  ark,  borne 
by  the  priests,  in  the  miraculous  passage  of  the  river. 
Here  began  the  series  of  divinely  assisted  successes, 
which  much  further  disciplined  and  matured  the 
chosen  people  for  their  great  mission,  in  teaching  to 
the  idolatrous  nations  the  power  and  supremacy  of 
the  one  true  God. 

After  the  crossing  of  the  Jordan  there  occurred  the 
destruction  of  Jericho,  whose  walls  fell  to  the  ground 
with"  no  human  instrumentality,  save  the  shout  of  the 
army  and  the  blowing  of  the  priests'  trumpets;  and 
then  the  manifestation  of  an  omniscient  watch  which 
detected  the  sin  of  Achan,  and  the  severe  punish- 
ment which  warned  against  all  future  appropriating 
of  the  accursed  wealth  of  Canaan  to  private  posses- 
sion.1 After  which  followed  the  perpetual  victory  of 
the  army,  in  overcoming  one  Canaanitish  city  and 
people  after  another,  for  about  seven  years  of  unin- 
terrupted conflict,  conquest,  and  complete  extirpation 
of  the  native  population.  The  whole  land  was  so 
brought  into  possession,  that  what  of  its  inhabitants 
were  not  utterly  exterminated,  as  had  been  required, 
were  at  least  so  subdued  or  terrified  that  they  yield- 
ed unquestioning  service  and  submission  to  their  re- 
sistless invaders. 

And  here  occurs  the  serious  question  of  the  moral 

1  Josh.  vii. 


142  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

right  of  Israel  to  invade  and  exterminate  the  Canaan- 
ites.  To  put  it  directly,  as  infidelity  affirms  it  to  have 
been,  Was  it  not  cruel,  inhuman,  and  horribly  wicked 
for  this  foreign  people  to  come  and  slay  old  and  young, 
and  take  permanent  possession  ?  If  we  look  to  noth- 
ing higher  than  humanity  in  those  transactions,  they 
could  not  be  justified ;  they  must  be  most  sternly  re- 
buked and  condemned.  No  man,  and  no  numbers  of 
men,  have  the  right  so  to  invade  and  destroy  their 
fellows.  But  this  is  not  the  light  in  which  to  put  and 
judge  these  proceedings.  It  was  not  Joshua's  com- 
mand, and  the  people's  ready  execution,  that  stood 
ultimately  responsible.  Jehovah  was  their  King  and 
their  God,  and  he  commanded  that  "  their  eye  should 
not  pity,  nor  their  hand  spare."  :  And  their  God  was 
also  the  God  of  all  flesh,  and  thus  the  real  question 
is,  May  God  command  one  people  to  exterminate  an- 
other, and  may  that  people  righteously  execute  such 
command  ?  We  do  not  look  the  truth  directly  in  the 
face,  till  we  question  God's  right  to  do  what  he  will 
with  his  own.  And  here  we  may  say,  on  both  sides, 
reverently  and  unhesitatingly,  that  the  right  of  God  is 
not  in  his  mere  arbitrary  will,  nor  in  this  that  all  flesh 
is  his  by  creation  and  power ;  but  it  is  in  this,  that  God 
is  Absolute  Reason,  and  that  he  should  fix  his  purpose 
and  execute  his  will  universally  in  the  end  of  reason. 
We,  who,  as  human,  can  only  have  a  finite  endowment 
of  reason,  may  not  always,  now  or  ever,  be  competent 
to  judge  the  Absolute  in  all  cases ;  and  yet,  so  far  as 

1  Deut.  vii.  16. 


THEOCRACY   TO   THE    CAPTIVITY.  143 

divine  purposes  and  acts  come  within  the  sphere  of 
human  comprehension,  we  may  judge  the  Tightness 
of  such  purposes  and  acts.  God  himself  permits  it, 
and  appeals  to  such  reason  within  the  sphere  of  its 
finite  compass.1 

The  following  considerations  sustain  the  divine 
equity  and  benevolence  in  the  transaction.  God  is 
the  moral  governor  of  all  people,  and  he  has  in  nature 
given  sufficient  light  to  read  and  know  his  being  and 
authority.2 

The  nations  of  Canaan  were  notoriously  wicked, 
and  had  been  long  spared  by  God,  and  were  now  ripe 
for  judgment;3  and  he  might  have  wholly  exterminat- 
ed them  righteously  by  some  providential  judgment. 

He  commissioned  Israel  to  be  his  authorized  execu- 
tioners,4 and  made  this  work  a  discipline  for  them  and 
for  their  warning.5  It  showed  to  them  and  the  nations 
God's  abhorrence  of  idolatry.  In  this  is  enough  to 
silence  all  questioning. 

Joshua  lived  to  make  the  conquest  of  Canaan,  and 
settle  the  tribes  in  it  according  to  their  assigned  por- 
tions, and  faithfully  and  successfully  administered  the 
government  for  several  years  afterwards,  while  the 
people  were  at  peace,  cultivating  the  soil  and  building 
up  the  ruined  cities.  The  tabernacle  had  been  set  up 
at  Shechem,  and  there,  when  he  had  lived  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  years,  Joshua  summoned  a  full  convocation 
of  the  people,  and  recounted  before  them  the  wonders 

1  Isa.  i.  18,  v.  3,  4 ;    Ezek.  xviii.  25-29. 

2  Rom.  i.  19,  20,  ii.  14,  15.  3  Gen.  xv.  16. 
4  Num.  xxxiii.  60-56.                            6  Deut.  vii. 


144  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

of  God  to  their  fathers  and  to  them,  and  gave  them 
his  solemn  charge  to  be  faithful  to  God  and  their 
national  covenant,  and  then  died,  committing  them  to 
the  care  and  protection  of  Jehovah.1 

3.  THE  ADMINISTRATION  UNDER  THE  JUDGES.  —  For 
some  time  after  Joshua's  death,  and  while  the.  elders 
who  survived  him  remained,  the  people  were  peace- 
ful, industrious,  and  obedient  to  the  law,  without  any 
appointed  head  of  the  nation.2  The  prudence  of 
Moses  in  their  wanderings,  and  the  prowess  of  Joshua 
in  their  wars,  had  made  these  chief  captains  necessary 
in  their  times ;  but  the  day  for  almost  exclusive  mili- 
tary training  was  past,  and  a  more  popular  civil 
method  of  governing  might  be. admitted.  Instead  of 
a  single  ruler,  God  designated  the  tribe  of  Judah  to 
have  the  pre-eminence  in  counsel  and  leading  meas- 
ures ; 3  and  under  the  precedence  of  this  tribe  there 
were  various  successful  expeditions  against  the  uneasy 
remnants  of  some  of  the  Canaanites,  while  some  still 
held  themselves  in  their  strong  places,  notwithstand- 
ing all  efforts  made  to  dislodge  them.4 

Under  the  influence  of  these  remaining  idolaters, 
and  the  Hebrew  tendency  to  relapse  into  supersti- 
tion, the  people,  after  the  first  generations  passed 
away,  began  to  forsake  God  and  serve  Balaam  and 
Ashtaroth ; 5  a,nd  God,  according  to  his  previous  an- 
nouncement to  make  his  special  providences  conform 

1  Josh,  xxiii.,  xxiv.  2  Josh.  xxiv.  31. 

3  Judges  i.  1-20.         4  Judges  i.  22-36.          *  Judges  ii.  13. 


THEOCRACY  TO   THE   CAPTIVITY.  145 

to  their  national  fidelity  or  rejection  of  him,  began  to 
give  their  enemies  power  over  them,  and  to  oppress 
them  with  severe  exactions.1  Then  came  the  admin- 
istration of  Judges,  whom  the  Lord  raised  up  for 
their  deliverance.2  These  judges  were  a  different 
order  of  magistracy  from  the  chief  ruler  or  captain, 
as  in  the  case  of  Moses  and  Joshua,  who  had  been 
permanent  in  their  office  through  all  changes.  The 
judges  were  raised  up  for  a  special  emergency,  and  on 
critical  occasions.  They  were  for  the  time  in  full 
authority  as  Jehovah's  vicegerents,  and  held  both 
judicial  and  executive  power,  declared  war,  headed 
the  army,  made  peace,  and  often  maintained  their 
rule  after  the  exigency  which  had  called  them  out 
had  passed  by.  But  they  exacted  no  annual  revenue, 
kept  no  royal  courts,  had  no  badge  of  official  dignity, 
and  designated  no  successors.3  Sometimes  they 
judged  all  Israel ;  but  in  other  cases  their  jurisdiction 
was  partial,  and  in  some  cases  two  were  contempo- 
rary. They  grew  at  the  last,  under  Eli  and  Samuel, 
•  to  be  more  permanent,  powerful,  and  dictatorial.  In 
one  case,  Deborah,  a  woman,  in  connection  with  Barak, 
judged  Israel  forty  years.  Their  appointment  began 
with  Othniel,  on  occasion  of  eight  years'  oppression 
of  Chusan-rishathaim,  of  Mesopotamia,  and  in  all,  to 
Samuel,  were  fourteen  in  number,  and  the  sum  of  their 
periods  of  office  was  four  hundred  and  ninety  years. 
There  may  have  been  intervals,  and  perhaps  overlap- 
pings,  and  the  exact  time  from  Joshua's  death  to 
1  Judges  ii.  14,  15.  2  Judges  ii.  16-19.  3  Judges  ii.  16-23. 

10 


146  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

Samuel's  anointing  Saul  as  king  cannot  well  be  de- 
termined, but  will  not  have  been  far  from  five  hun- 
dred years.  Very  special  interpositions  of  Jehovah 
by  some  of  the  judges,  particularly  Deborah,  Gideon, 
Jephtha,  Samson,  and  Samuel,  made  conspicuous  his 
power  and  protection  of  his  people,  and  his  rebuke 
for  their  backslidings ;  and  the  taking  of  the  Ark  of 
the  Covenant  by  the  Philistines  under  Eli  not  only 
rebuked  Israel,  but  confounded  the  idols  of  the  hea- 
then in  their  own  temples.  So  God  kept  his  people 
together  before  the  nations  till  the  days  of  Samuel. 

4.  THE  THEOCRATIC  ADMINISTRATION  UNDER  KINGS. 
—  In  the  old  age  of  Samuel,  he  made  his  sons  asso- 
ciates with  him  in  the  judge's  office ;  but  they  became 
unjust  and  mercenary,  "accepted  bribes  and  per- 
verted judgment."  It  was  also  a  critical  time  with 
the  nation,  which  was  then  dangerously  beset  with 
powerful  enemies.  The  people  were  dissatisfied  and 
alarmed,  and  the  elders  in  concert  repaired  to  Samuel 
at  Ramah,  and  asked  directly  for  a  king  to  rule  them, 
after  the  manner  of  other  nations.1  This  request  for 
a  king  displeased  Samuel ;  but  on  inquiry  of  the  Lord, 
the  divine  answer  affirmed  the  request  to  be  unright- 
eous, and  yet  directed  Samuel  to  a  compliance  with 
their  wish.  Samuel  prophetically  announced  to  them 
the  consequences  of  their  choice,  and  the  exactions 
and  oppressions  their  kings  would  make  upon,  the 
people,  and  the  burdens  the  nation  must  bear  to  sup- 

1  1  Sam.  yiii.  1-5. 


THEOCRACY  TO   THE   CAPTIVITY.  147 

port  the  royal  state  and  dignity ;  but  the  elders,  never- 
theless, were  persistent  in  their  purpose,  and  by  God's 
direction  Samuel  complied  with  their  request,  though 
holding  it  unreasonable,  and  sent  them  away  with  the 
understanding  a  king  would  be  found  and  inaugu- 
rated. 

Saul,  a  son  of  Kish,  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  was 
hunting  the  strayed  asses  of  his  father ;  and  becoming 
wearied  and  discouraged  by  a  long  search,  he  said  to 
his  servant  that  he  would  go  to  the  city  of  Samuel 
and  take  counsel  of  the  man  of  God.  At  the  entrance 
of  the  city  Samuel  met  them,  and  having  been  already 
directed  by  God,  he  privately  there  anointed  Saul 
king  over  Israel.  Soon  after,  a  solemn  convocation 
of  the  people  at  Mizpeh  was  made,  and  the  lot  was 
cast  by  the  prophet,  to  determine  before  all  the  peo- 
ple who  their  king  should  be,  first  by  tribes,  then  by 
families,  and  then  man  by  man.  First  the  lot  fell  to 
the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  then  to  the  family  of  Matri ; 
and  ultimately  among  the  individuals  of  the  family, 
the  lot  fell  to  the  very  man  whom  Samuel  had  already 
prophetically  and  privately  anointed.  When  found 
and  presented,  his  great  stature  and  comely  form  and 
features  struck  at  once  the  popular  favor,  and  by  ac- 
clamation they  acknowledge  him  their  king.  He  was 
soon  publicly  inaugurated  at  Gilgal,  and  divinely  in- 
vested with  the  regal  authority. 

Israel's  sin  in  seeking  a  king  was  rather  in  the 
manner  and  motive  than  in  the  fact.  Moses  had  in 
his  day  anticipated  such  a  result,  and  had  given  such 


148  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

directioDS  as  permitted,  and  even  encouraged,  the 
nation  to  have  a  king.1  Their  motive  in  asking  a 
king,  though  occasioned  by  the  age  of  Samuel  and 
the  immorality  of  his  sons,  was  the  gratification  of 
vanity  and  national  glory,  and  too  much  after  the 
custom  of  the  heathen  about  them ;  for  they  said, 
after  Samuel's  prudential  expostulations,  "  No,  but 
we  will  have  a  king  over  us,  that  we  also  may  be 
like  all  the  nations,  -and  that  our  king  may  judge  us 
and  fight  our  battles."2  But  most  reprehensible  was 
it  that  they  forgot  their  theocratic  allegiance,  and 
desired  a  king  incompatible  with  the  claims  of  Jeho- 
vah. Says  the  Lord  to  Samuel,  "  They  have  not  re- 
jected thee,  but  they  have  rejected  me,  that  I  should 
not  reign  over  them."  3  They  had  neither  consulted 
God  nor  his  prophets  ;  they,  passed  by  the  high  priest 
and  the  Shechina ;  and  of  their  own  motion  they  de- 
manded a  king,  to  the  exclusion  of  Jehovah,  already 
their  legitimate  sovereign.  God  allowed  their  re- 
quest, and  made  it  the  very  means  of  punishing  their 
sin,  and  disciplining  their  disloyalty  to  him.  He 
maintained  his  supremacy,  and  held  his  constitutional 
authority,  and  in  giving  them  a  king  as  he  pleased, 
he  made  the  king  to  be  his  viceroy,  and  no  indepen- 
dent monarch.  The  government  was  still  a  Theoc- 
racy, and  the  human  king  was  God's  vicegerent  as 
truly  as  had  been  their  chief  captains  and  their 
judges.  This  peculiarity  is  to  be  recognized  through 
all  the  kingly  succession,  that  the  human  king  acts 

1  Deut.  xvii.  14-20.          2  1  Sam.  viii.  20.          3  1  Sam.  viii.  7. 


THEOCRACY   TO   THE   CAPTIVITY.  149 

in  Jehovah's  stead  and  by  his  authority.  He  regu- 
lated the  religious  arrangements  of  the  courses  of  the 
priests'  service,  the  orders  of  the  singers,  and  the  em- 
ployments of  the  Levites  under  the  prescribed  ritual  j-1 
he  could  arrange  and  officer  the  army,2  and  he  could 
appoint  the  civil  magistrates  for  executing  the*  laws 
through  the  land ;  3  but  he  could  originate  no  new  laws 
or  ceremonies  not  in  execution  of  the  divine  statutes, 
except  as  committed  to  him  by  the  divine  Sovereign. 
Hence  the  rebukes  and  threatening  of  the  prophets 
to  disobedient  kings  were  legitimate  ;  they  were  Jeho- 
vah's accredited  messengers  calling  delinquent  vice- 
gerents to  account. 

The  first  year  of  Saul's  reign  was  without  reproach, 
but  after  the  second  year  he  began  to  exhibit  the 
truth  of  Samuel's  forewarning.  He  raised  a  large 
body-guard  of  three  thousand  men,  two  thousand  for 
himself,  and  one  thousand  he  committed  to  the  charge 
of  his  son  Jonathan.4  He  offered  sacrifices  presump- 
tuously, and  was  plainly  told  the  kingdom  would  go 
from  his  family  ; 5  and  some  time  after,  for  direct  dis- 
obedience, Jehovah  took  the  kingdom  from  him, 
and  gave  it  in  his  own  purpose  to  Saul's  neighbor.6 
After  this  Samuel  dropped  all  intercourse  with  Saul, 
and  under  the  Lord's  direction  privately  anointed  the 
youthful  son  of  Jesse  to  be  the  future  king  of  Israel.7 
After  this  Saul  became  irritable,  jealous,  and  reck- 

1  1  Chron.  xv.,  xvi.,  and  xxiii.-xxvii.  2  2  Sam.  xxiii. ;  1  Kings  iv. 
3  2  Chron.  xix.  4  1  Sam.  xiii.  1,  2.  6  1  Sam.  xiii. 

6  1  Sam.  xv.  7  1  Sam.  xvi.  13. 


150  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

less ;  and  as  the  Lord  had  forsaken  him,  he  applied, 
after  Samuel's  death,  to  the  woman  of  Endor,  who 
had  a  familiar  spirit ;  and  to  the  surprise  of  the  wo- 
man and  the  confusion  of  Saul,  the  dead  Samuel  ap- 
peared, and  announced  his  doom,  that  on  the  next 
day  he  should  be  with  Samuel  in  the  eternal  world. 
In  the  morrow's  battle  with  the  Philistines  on  Mount 
G-ilboa,  his  army  was  defeated ;  and  as  he  was  hard 
pressed  by  his  enemies,  he  fell  upon  his  own  sword, 
and  died,  he  and  his  armor-bearer.1  Saul  reigned 
forty  years. 

When  David  heard  of  the  death  of  Saul,  he  in- 
quired of  God,  who  answered  by  sending  him  up 
from  Ziklag  to  Hebron,  in  the  tribe  of  Judah,  and  the 
men  of  Judah  came  to  him  and  anointed  him  king 
over  the  house  of  Judah ; 2  but  Abner,  Saul's  chief 
captain,  took  Ishbosheth,  a  son  of  Saul,  and  made  him 
king  over  all  Israel  beside  Judah.3  After  seven  years, 
Ishbosheth  was  slain,  and  all  the  tribes  came  to  David 
in  Hebron,  and  made  him  king  over  them  all.4 

David's  reign  was  prosperous,  and  Israel  became 
numerous  and  powerful,  fighting  1nany  battles  and 
overcoming  their  enemies,  and  maintaining  the  wor- 
ship of  the  true  God  at  the  sanctuary.  David  greatly 
delighted  in  the  holy-days'  convocations  at  the  taber- 
nacle ;  arranged  the  order  of  the  priests  in  their  min- 
istrations, and  the  singers ;  and  wrote  the  larger  por- 
tion of  their  devotional  Psalms.  But  his  generally 

1  1  Sam.  xxxi.  4,  5.  2  2  Sara.  ii.  4. 

3  2  Sara.  ii.  8,  9.  4  2  Sam.  v.  6. 


THEOCRACY  TO   THE  CA 

holy  life  was  dishonored  by  some 
iquities,  as  in  the  matter  of  Uriah ;  and 
tive  judgments  of  God  followed,  marking  before  tn~e~ 
nation  and  carrying  to  his  own  conscience  the  evi- 
dence of  the  divine  displeasure.  The  revolt  and 
death  of  Absalom,  the  incest  of  Amnon,  and  the  de- 
structive pestilence  when  he  numbered  the  people 
of  his  own  motion,  officiously  and  vain-gloriously,  — 
all  chastened  his  spirit,  and  induced  bitter  repent- 
ance and  deep  humility.  In  his  last  days,  his  son 
Adonijah  attempted  to  usurp  the  kingdom  which  God 
had  intimated  should  descend  to  Solomon,  and  David 
sent  at  once  Nathan  the  prophet,  and  the  high  priest, 
and  the  chief  captain,  and  they  anointed  Solomon 
king ;  and  David  gave  to  him  a  special  charge,  and 
then  died,  having  reigned,  in  all,  forty  years.1 

The  reign  of  Solomon  was  peaceful  and  long,  and 
Israel  rose  to  the  height  of  national  greatness  and 
renown.  The  costly  temple  was  built,  and  the  Ark 
of  God  transferred  to  it  from  the  tabernacle ;  and  all 
the  imposing  ceremonial  worship  of  the  daily  services 
and  yearly  solemnities  brought  the  people  before  the 
Lord,  advancing  them  in  the  knowledge  of  what  the 
Covenant  with  their  fathers  and  the  theocratic  reign 
of  Jehovah  meant  to  them  as  a  people,  and  in  prepara- 
tion of  the  world  for  the  Messiah's  coming.  And  yet, 
with  all  this  teaching,  and  in  many  persons  learning, 
the  will  and  work  of  the  Lord,  the  long  prosperity 
of  Solomon's  reign  was  more  than  fallen  humanity 

1  1  Kings  ii.  10,  11. 


152  HUMANITY   AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

could  bear.  Wealth  flowed  in  on  every  side,  luxuries 
abounded,  and  sensuality  greatly  overpowered  the 
king  and  the  nation.  Solomon  disobeyed  the  injunc- 
tion against  foreign  marriages,  and  multiplied  his 
wives  from  the  heathen  nations,  and  especially  an 
Egyptian  princess,1  and  made  alliance  with  Pharaoh, 
and  opened  the  way  for  all  Egyptian  superstitions 
and  idolatries  again  to  come  in  to  the  people.  As 
Solomon  grew  old,  he  was  in  this  way  led  into  hea- 
then practices,  and  set  up  altars  and  built  high  places 
over  against  Jerusalem.2  This  rapid  religious  de- 
generacy demanded  an  effectual  check,  and  God  con- 
vulsed and  divided  the  kingdom,  and  brought  out  a 
lasting  separation  between  the  idolatrous  and  the 
true  worshippers. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Solomon,  Jeroboam 
became  conspicuous  as  a  man  of  enterprise  and  valor, 
and  Solomon  promoted  him  to  be  captain  of  the  tribe 
of  Joseph.  The  prophet  Ahijah  was  commissioned 
by  the  Lord  to  announce  to  him  that  the  nation 
should  be  rent  in  twain,  and  that  ten  tribes  would 
come  under  his  sway,  because  of  the  national  idol- 
atry, but  that  the  consummation  should  be  delayed 
during  the  life  of  Solomon.  Owing  probably  to  Jer- 
oboamte  insolence  and  to  Solomon's  jealousy,  Solomon 
sought  the  life  of  Jeroboam,  and  the  latter  fled  to 
Egypt,  and  was  protected  and  favored  by  Shishak,  the 
then  reigning  Pharaoh.  Shishak  was  doubtless  the 
first  king  of  Manetho's  twenty-second  dynasty,  known 

1  1  Kings  iii.  1.  2  1  Kings  xi.  1-8. 


THEOCRACY  TO   THE   CAPTIVITY.  153 

on  the  monuments  as  Sheshonk,  and  probably  had 
gained  his  crown  by  violence  or  treachery  from  Sol- 
omon's father-in-law,  as  the  last  king  of  Manetho's 
twenty-first  dynasty; 1  and  thus  Shishak  was  ready  to 
foster  the  refugee  from  Solomon.  So  soon  as  Solo- 
mon died,  having  reigned  forty  years,  Jeroboam  re- 
turned, and  was  present  when  all  Israel  had  gathered 
at  Shechem  to  make  Solomon's  son,  Rebohoam,  king 
in  the  place  of  his  father.  At  his  instigation  they 
demanded  of  Rehoboam  a  diminution  of  the  taxes, 
which  the  old  counsellors  of  Solomon  advised  him  to 
make,  but  the  young  men  advised  him  to  assert  his 
prerogative,  and  threaten  stronger  exactions.  So  Reho- 
boam  haughtily  answered ;  and  at  once,  on  the  signal 
from  Jeroboam,  an  uproar  was  made,  the  council  was 
broken  up,  and  the  tribes,  except  those  of  Judah  and 
Benjamin,  went  to  their  own  homes.  Rehoboam,  in 
the  same  haughty  spirit  as  his  threat,  sent  his  treas- 
urer to  collect  their  augmented  taxes,  whom  they 
stoned  to  death,  and  stood  out  in  open  mutiny.  Re- 
hoboam cowered  and  fled  in  fear  to  the  fortifications 
in  Jerusalem,  and  the  ten  tribes  made  Jeroboam 
their  king,  while  Rehoboam  held  the  allegiance  of 
the  two  tribes,  Judah  and  Benjamin.  An  army  of 
the  two  tribes  was  at  once  ready,  with  a  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  men  to  fight  the  ten  rebellious 
tribes  into  submission ;  but  by  the  prophet  Shemaiah, 
the  Lord  forbade  Rehoboam  to  go  out  to  battle,  for 
this  whole  matter  had  been  under  his  providential 

1  Wilkinson's  Ancient  Egyptians,  Chapter  II. 


154  HUMANITY  AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

supervision.  Henceforth  the  Hebrews  were  two  king- 
doms —  that  of  Israel  and  that  of  Judah,  Israelites 
and  Jews.  The  Israelites  made  Samaria  in  the  lot  of 
Ephraim  their  capital,  while  the  Jews  kept  the  old 
capital  at  Jerusalem,  which  was  nearly  on  the  divid- 
ing line  between  the  lot  of  Judah  and  of  Benjamin. 
The  one  kingdom  was  often  known  also  as  that  of 
Ephraim,  as  the  other  was  that  of  Judah,  from  the 
tribal  locality  of  the  royal  residence. 

5.  AFTER  THE  DIVISION,  TO  ISRAEL'S  DISPERSION  AND 
JUDAH'S  BABYLONIAN  CAPTIVITY.  —  The  revolt  of  the 
ten  tribes  was  of  the  Lord,  in  the -sense  that  he  over- 
ruled what  he  condemned  as  wrong,  for  the  better 
fulfilment  of  his  great  purpose  to  fit  the  world  for  the 
promised  Redeemer's  coming.  Their  revolt  was  a 
rejection  of  God  as  their  king,  a  rebellion  against 
their  legitimate  sovereign,  and  alienation  of  them- 
selves from  the  Abrahamic  Covenant  and  Promise, 
and  thus  cutting  themselves  off  from  all  the  privileges 
and  prerogatives  of  the  theocratic  state.  Hencefortli 
the  history  of  Israel  a's  a  nation  is  of  no  more  interest 
in  the  covenant  institutions  of  Jehovah,  than  the  his- 
tory of  any  Gentile  nation,  except  as  their  old  con- 
nection and  still  close  neighborhood  with  Judah  had 
a  more  special  influence  upon  the  kingdom  and  peo- 
ple who  remained  in  covenant.  God  continued  his 
warnings  by  occasional  prophets,  and  announcing  his 
threatened  judgments,  and  thus  gave  them  opportu- 
nity for  repentance  and  return  to  allegiance ;  but  as 


THEOCRACY   TO   THE   CAPTIVITY.  155 

a  kingdom,  they  rejected  all  warnings,  and  steadily 
departed  further  from  the  true  worship  till  they  be- 
came lost  in  history  among  the  nations.  We  only 
outline  their  experience  to  their  final  dispersion. 

Besides  Jeroboam,  with  whom  the  revolt  com- 
menced, and  who  reigned  twenty-two  years,  there 
were  eighteen  kings,  and  two  periods  of  interreg- 
num of  twelve  and  of  eight  years  respectively,  and 
making  for  the  duration  of  the  separate  kingdom  of 
Israel  two  hundred  and  sixty  years  and  seven  months 
in  all.  Of  all  these  successive  kings  it  is  specifically 
recorded  that  "  they  did  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord," 
and  among  them  ten,  at  least,  lost  their  lives  by  vio- 
lence. At  once  it  was  manifest  how  dangerous  to 
the  permanent  separation  from  Judah  it  would  be  to 
permit  the  Israelites  so  disposed  to  go  up  to  Jerusa- 
lem at  the  yearly  feasts  and  solemn  convocation,  and 
on  consultation  with  his  courtiers,  Jeroboam  made 
two  golden  images  of  the  Egyptian  Apis,  known  as 
"  the  golden  calves,"  and  placed  one  at  Dan,  in  the 
tribe  of  Naphtali,  at  the  northern  extreme  of  the  king- 
dom, and  the  other  at  Bethel,  within  the  tribe  of  Ephra- 
im,  and  at  the  southern  portion  of  the  kingdom,  and 
erected  temples  and  altars,  and  appointed  priests  not 
of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  and  established  feast  days,  and 
thus  introduced  a  superstitious  and  idolatrous  wor- 
ship after  the  Egyptian  model.  Some  pious  Israelites 
remained  and  refused  to  join  in  the  idolatrous  prac- 
tices,1 but  the  most  of  the  nation  became  confirmed  in 
pagan  worship. 

1  1  Kings  xix.  18. 


156  HUMANITY   AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

While  Jeroboan  was  burning  incense  at  his  idola- 
trous altar  at  Bethel,  a  prophet  from  Judah  announced 
to  him  the  destruction  of  this  altar  and  worship  by  a 
future  king  of  Judah,  Josiah  by  name,  and  Jeroboam  . 
in  great  anger  stretched  out  his  arm  to  arrest  the 
prophet ;  but  in  the  act  the  arm  was  paralyzed,  and 
the  altar  burst  asunder  and  scattered  around  the  fire 
and  ashes.  The  terrified  king  was  humbled,  and 
asked  the  prophet's  intercession  to  God  for  his 
restoration,  which  was  done,  and  his  impotent  arm 
healed ;  but  in  his  perverseness  he  still  clave  to  his 
idolatries,  and  multiplied  profane  priests^  and  kept  his 
people  from  the  Lord.  His  son  Abijah  was  dangerous- 
ly sick,  and  his  judgment  and  conscience  constrained 
him  to  inquire  of  the  Lord,  and  not  of  his  idols ;  but 
lest  his  people  should  recognize  his  want  of  confi- 
dence in  his  gods,  he  sent  his  wife  secretly  to  Ahijah, 
at  Shiloh,  to  make  the  inquiry.  This  old  prophet,  who 
in  Solomon's  reign  had  foretold  Jeroboam  of  his  com- 
ing elevation  to  the  kingdom,  was  now  blind ;  but  fore- 
warned of  God,  he  announced  who  she  was,  and  re- 
buked the  hypocritical  concealment,  and  uttered  the 
curse  of  the  Lord  upon  the  house  of  Jeroboam  for  his 
wickedness.  The  child  should  die  or  ever  she  entered 
the  capital  city,  and  the  only  favor  given  was  this 
natural  death,  for  all  the  rest  of  the  house  should  die 
by  violence.  "  The  Lord  will  smite  Israel  as  a  reed 
is  shaken  in  the  water,  and  he  will  root  up  Israel  out 
of  this  good  land  which  he  gave  to  their  fathers,  and 


THEOCRACY  TO   THE   CAPTIVITY.  157 

will  scatter  them  beyond  the  river,  because  they  have 
made  their  groves,  provoking  the  Lord  to  anger."  l 

Jeroboam  warred  against  Judah,  and  the  battle  was 
set  in  array,  eight  hundred  thousand  men  of  Israel 
against  four  hundred  thousand  men  of  Judah,  in  the 
days  of  Abijah,  son  and  successor  to  Rehoboam. 
Standing  on  a  mountain  over  against  the  army  of 
Israel,  Abijah  reproved  them  for  their  idolatry  and 
rebellion  against  the  family  of  David,  and  would  dis- 
suade them  from  fighting  against  the  people  of  the 
Lord  God  of  their  fathers.  Jeroboam  secretly  di- 
rected an  ambush  to  get  in  stealth  behind  the  army 
of  Judah,  and  when  Abijah  and  Judah  knew  it,  they 
put  their  trust  in  God,  and  shouted  the  battle-cry,  and 
attacked  and  slew  of  Israel  five  hundred  thousand 
men,  took  Bethel  and  many  other  cities,  and  so  weak- 
ened and  discouraged  Israel,  that  Judah  was  left  in 
peace  of  Jeroboam  ever  after.  At  length  Jeroboam 
died  of  some  divine  judgment,  for  it  is  said,  "  The 
Lord  struck  him  and  he  died."  2 

Then  came  treachery, and  assassinations,  and  suicides 
among  the  kings  of  Israel,  till  Ahab  took  the  throne, 
and  with  his  heathen  wife,  Jezebel,  filled  Israel  with 
abominations.3  Elijah,  the  Lord's  prophet,  often  re- 
buked and  reproved  him,  tested  the  supremacy  of 
Jehovah  against  Baal  by  the  answer  of  fire  from  the 
Lord,  and  threatened  him  that  the  dogs  should  lick 
his  blood  in  the  vineyard  of  Naboth,  which  he  had 
robbed  by  violence.  Ahab  was  slai'n  in  battle  with 

1  1  Kings  xiv.  15.  2  2  Chron.  xiii.  3  1  Kings  xvi. 


158  HUMANITY  AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

the  Syrians,  and  they  washed  the  blood  from  his 
chariot,  which  the  dogs  licked  up  in  this  stolen  vine- 
yard. Jehu  followed  him  in  the  kingdom,  and  with 
burning  zeal  for  a  time  slew  seventy  of  Ahab's  sons, 
and  Jezebel,  Ahab's  pagan  wife,  and  the  priests  of 
Baal,  and  demolished  this  idol's  temple  and  altars ; 
but  he  left  the  Egyptian  golden  calves,  and  "  took  no 
heed  to  walk  in  the  law  of  the  Lord  God."  After 
Elijah  there  were  the  prophets  Jonah,  Amos,  and 
Hosea,  who  continued  the  divine  warnings  till  the 
kingdom  was  given  over  to  destruction.  The  later 
kings  reigned  short  and  wickedly,  and  were  violently 
destroyed  till  Hoshea  took  the  throne.  Shalmanezer, 
king  of  Assyria,  conquered  Israel,  and  subjected  the 
nation  to  tribute,  and  when  Hoshea  made  alliance 
with  Egypt,  and  refused  to  pay  the  tribute,  Shalma- 
nezer again  invaded  Israel,  and  carried  the  people 
captive  to  Assyria,  and  put  them  in  Halah,  and  in 
Habor,  by  the  river  Gozan,  and  in  the  cities  of  the 
Medes.1 

Ere  long  the  king  of  Assyria  brought  families  from 
different  provinces  of  his  empire,  and  settled  them 
in  the  vacated  territories  of  the  captive  ten  tribes. 
These  blended  the  worship  of  Jehovah  with  that  of 
their  provincial  gods,  and  were  known  in  after  gener- 
ations as  Samaritans  with  whom  the  Jews  would  have 
no  dealings.2  The  ten  tribes  so  dispersed  in  Persia 
and  Media  have  become  lost  from  all  historic  recogni- 
tion, and  only  such  as  joined  themselves  with  Judah 

*  2  Kings  xviii.  9-12.  *  John  iv.  9. 


THEOCRACY  TO   THE   CAPTIVITY.  159 

» 

previous  to  the  dispersion  have  been  retained  within 
the  circumscription  of  the  Abrahamic  Promise. 

We  return  to  take  up  the  notice  of  the  Theocracy 
under  the  kings,  and  follow  the  experiences  of  the 
kingdom  of  Judah  from  the  division  of  the  nation, 
which  people  were  henceforth  known  as  the  Jews. 
Many  pious  Israelites  joined  themselves  to  Judah  and 
the  worship  of  Jehovah  from  the  first,  and  at  subse- 
quent times  the  defection  of  the  godly  from  Israel  to 
the  Jews  was  frequent  and  numerous,  and  almost 
universally  the  priests  and  Levites,  who  had  no 
countenance  from  the  Israelitish  grovernment,1  left 
their  cities  in  Israel  for  those  in  Judah.  The  The- 
ocratic government  and  Ritual  service,  together  with 
the  responses  of  the  Oracle  in  the  holy  of  holies,  con- 
centrated their  influences  upon  this  limited  and  better 
portion  of  the  chosen  people,  and  in  connection  with 
the  national  competition  for  superiority  over  the  re- 
volted tribes,  their  religious  culture  greatly  elevated 
the  Jewish  character.  There  was  more  genuine  piety 
and  firm  adherence  to  their  Covenant  than  any  former 
age  had  witnessed.  So  was  it  mainly  with  Judah  till 
the  time  of  the  Israelites'  dispersion,  when  the  absence 
of  national  rivalry  and  the  universal  example  of  pagan 
idolatry  allowed  the  strong  under-current  towards 
heathen  superstitions  to  gain  force,  and  finally  over- 
flow in  wide-spread  pagan  practices  and  rejection  of 
covenant  obligations. 

Beginning  with  Rehoboam,  who  reigned  seventeen 

1  2  Chron.  xi.  13,  14,  xiii.  9. 


160  HUMANITY  AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

years,  there  were  to  the  Babylonian  captivity  twenty 
reigns,  one  of  which  was  that  of  queen  Athaliah, 
making  in  all  the  sum  of  three  hundred  and  ninety- 
four  years.  The  two  hundred  and  sixty  years  and 
seven  months  of  the  Israelitish  kingdom  ran  out  in 
the  sixth  year  of  Hezekiah,  king  of  Judah,  and  from 
thence  to  the  Babylonian  captivity  was  a  period  of 
one  hundred  and  thirty-three  years  and  six  months,  at 
the  termination  of  the  eleventh  year  of  Zedekiah, 
king  of  Judah.  Of  the  Jewish  reigns  before  the 
dispersion,  there  were  six  whose  influence  was  good, 
embracing  a  period  of  more  than  two  hundred  }Tears ; 
and  there  were  also  six  whose  influence  was  evil,  but 
whose  duration  was  so  shortened  that  they  embraced 
but  about  fifty  years.  After  the  dispersion  of  Israel 
the  change  was  rapid  and  lamentable.  Passing  the 
remaining  years  of  Hezekiah's  reign,  which  were 
twenty-three,  and  all  good,  there  were  six  evil  kings, 
reigning  in  all  eighty  years,  and  only  one  godly  reign, 
that  of  good  Josiah,  of  thirty-one  years'  continuance. 
The  lapse  in  iniquity  and  idolatry  was  fearful,  making 
the  visits  of  divine  judgments  a  necessity,  if  the  de- 
fection from  God  was  to  be  arrested. 

Manasseh's  most  wicked  reign  followed  that  of 
pious  Hezekiah,  and  he  filled  the  land  with  idolatry, 
setting  up  his  images  in  the  very  temple,  and  wrought 
abomination  in  Judah  more  than  any  king  before  him. 
God,  by  his  prophets,  announced  the  coming  destruc- 
tion :  •"  I  will  wipe  Jerusalem  as  a  man  wipeth  a  disji, 


THEOCRACY  TO   THE   CAPTIVITY.  161 

wiping  it  and*  turning  it  upside  down." l  Amon  fol- 
lowed Manasseh.  and  also  imitated  his  wickedness, 
but  in  two  years  was  assassinated  in  his  own  palace. 
The  prophets  Nahum,  Joel,  and  Habakkuk  taught  and 
warned  in  these  evil  times ;  yet  would  the  kings  and 
people  not  be  reclaimed.  The  good  reign  of  Josiah 
partially  restored  the  defection  and  delayed  the  ruin ; 
but  it  was  only  a  respite,  and  not  a  deliverance,  for 
there  was  no  confirmed  reformation.  In  his  day  were 
the  prophets  Zephaniah  and  Jeremiah,  by  whom  God 
said  he  spared  Judah  for  Josiah's  sake,  but  that  ulti- 
mately he  would  remove  Judah  as  he  had  Israel  from 
his  sight,  and  reject  Jerusalem  as  the  place  for  his 
name.2 

Jehoahaz  followed  in  the  kingdom,  and  "  turned  to 
work  wickedness,"  and  in  three  months  the  desola- 
tion began.  The  king  of  Egypt  invaded  and  con- 
quered the  land,  and  carried  him  away  captive,  and 
put  Jehoiakirn  in  his  place.  He  also  wrought  wicked- 
ness, and  Nebuchadnezzar  of  Babylon  invaded  his  king- 
dom, and  subjected  him  to  tribute.  After  three  years, 
on  Jehoiakim's  refusal  to  pay  the  tribute,  the  Chal- 
deans again  invaded  the  land,  and  oppressed  the  peo- 
ple, in  the  midst  of  which  he  died,  and  Jehoiachin  took 
the  throne ;  and  in  the  third  month  Nebuchadnezzar 
came  again,  and  carried  the  royal  family,  and  mighty 
men,  and  skilled  artisans  to  Babylon,  and  put  Zede- 
kiah  on  the  throne  as  his  own  vassal.  The  prophet 
Ezekiel  now  lived,  and  was  also  carried  captive  with 

1  2  Kings  xxi.  13.  2  2  Kings  xxii.,  xxiii. 

11 


162  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

the  chief  men.  In  the  ninth  year  of  his  reign  Zede- 
kiah  rebelled,  and  Nebuchadnezzar  came  back  and 
besieged  Jerusalem,  and  after  resisting  the  siege 
three  years,  and  enduring  famine  and  suffering,  the 
Jews  were  forced  to  surrender,  the  walls  of  Jerusa- 
lem were  broken  down,  the  temple  was  burned, 
the  holy  vessels  and  costly  ornaments  of  the  temple 
plundered  and  carried  to  Bab}Tlon.  The  sons  of  Zede- 
kiah  were  slain  before  his  eyes,  and  then  his  own  eyes 
were  put  out,  and  he  in  his  blindness  was  carried  a 
prisoner  to  Babylon.  The  poor  and  oppressed  people 
left  in  the  land  were  governed  by  rulers  put  over 
them  by  their  conquerors.  This  captivity  had  re- 
peatedly been  foretold  as  determined  by  Jehovah, 
and  that  its  continuance  should  be  for  seventy  years ; 
and  this  thorough  execution  of  the  desolation  is  fully 
narrated.1 

Besides  the  terrible,  and  in  the  end  effectual,  dis- 
cipline of  Judah  by  these  calamities,  there  was  the 
throwing  of  the  Jewish  influence  and  knowledge  of 
the  true 'faith  upon  another  and  wider  portion  of  hu- 
manity. Not  Canaan,  and  Egypt,  and  Syria,  as  mainly 
hitherto,  but  the  Assyrian  empire  over  all  Eastern 
Asia,  was  made  acquainted  with  the  institutions  of 
Jehovah  and  the  practices  of  his  people.  Their  des- 
olation purified  the  Jews,  and  they,  in  their  recovered 
loyalty  to  God,  taught  the  nations  the  promise  of  his 
coming  redemption  for  the  whole  lost  family  of  man- 
kind. 

1  2  Kings  xxiv.,  xxv. 


FROM  CAPTIVITY  TO   THE  INCARNATION.  163 


SECTION    VII, 

FKOM  THE  BABYLONIAN  CAPTIVITY  TO  THE   COMING 
OF  MESSIAH. 

HENCEFORTH  inspired  Scripture  ceases  to  direct  our 
way  in  the  history  of  God's  dealing  with  humanity, 
till  we  come  to  the  New  Testament  record,  save  the 
Books  of  Daniel  and  Esther,  which  give  some  occur- 
rences in  Babylon,  and  those  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah, 
relating  to  events  connected  with  the  restoration 
from  captivity.  The  captivity  and  experience  in 
Babylon  did  much  in  fixing  the  Jews  in  loyalty  to  Je- 
hovah, and  the  preparation  for  the  advent  of  their 
promised  Kedeemer.  They  came  out  of  that  furnace 
greatly  purified,  and  ever  after  abhorred -idolatry  as 
deeply  as  before  they  had  been  inclined  to  all  pagan 
superstitions.  The  peculiarities  of  the  Theocratic 
rule  and  ritual  were  henceforth  less  needful,  and  hav- 
ing mainly  accomplished  their  end,  the  whole  dispen- 
sation was  wearing  away.  The  captivity  destroyed 
and  lost  many  of  their  sacred  symbols,  which  at  their 
return  were  never  restored.  The  ark  of  the  covenant, 
with  the  original  copy  of  the  law,  the  golden  pot  of 


164  HUMANITY   AWAITING  EEDEMPIION. 

old  manna,  and  the  blossoming  almond  rod  of  Aaron, 
which  had  been  laid  up  before  the  Lord,  were  all  lost 
with  the  burning  of  the  first  temple ;  and  more  than 
all,  the  Shechina,  or  visible  presence  of  Jehovah, 
passed  away  without  any  return  to  the  second  temple. 
The  successive  removals,  to  its  final  departure,  are 
strikingly  given  in  the  visions  of  Ezekiel,  step  by  step, 
just  preceding  the  burning  of  the  temple.1  Jehovah's 
perpetual  witness  of  himself  in  special  providences 
also  began  its  decline  as  less  marked  and  constant, 
and  the  open  entailment  of  judgments  upon  the  chil- 
dren for  the  fathers'  sins,  in  civil  vindication,  were 
prophetically  announced  as  then  ceasing.2 

Still  in  its  expiring  light  the  old  Theocracy  does 
not  cease  its  salutary  teachings.  Its  eve  is  as  impor- 
tant in  its  lessons  to  us  as  its  morn  or  its  midday 
splendor.  It  tells  of  God's  work  done  by  it,  and 
marks  the  passing  away  of  an  important  day  in  order 
that  the  more  important  scenes  of  a  gospel  day  may 
open.  And  as  the  old  passes  away,  we  shall  find  its 
expiring  light  and  influence  thrown  out  wider  and 
further  upon  the  nations.  The  providence  of  God 
mingles  his  people  more  with  mankind,  and  sets  their 
faith  and  worship  out  on  broader  scenes  than  had  be- 
fore been  exhibited.  The  Jews  go  to  Babylon  and 
make  their  impression  on  the  Assyrian  empire;  the 
Assyrian  is  subverted  by  the  Persian,  this  by  the 

1  With  Ezek.  i.  confer  viii.  4,  ix.  3,  x.  4,  18,  xi.  23,  24. 
8  Ezek.  xviii.  2,  3. 


FROM   CAPTIVITY  TO   THE  INCARNATION.  165 

Grecian,  and  then  this  by  the  Koman  universal  mon- 
archies ;  and  amid  them  all,  the  chosen  people  of  Je- 
hovah, and  their  persistent  faith  and  worship,  are  kept 
constantly  and  most  prominently  conspicuous.  These 
great  transactions  fulfil  the  divine  prediction,  "  I  will 
overturn,  overturn,  overturn  it,  and  it  shall  be  no 
more,  until  he  cometh  whose  right  it  is,  and  I  will 
give  it  him." 1  "  Yet  once,  it  is  a  little  while,  and  I 
will  shake  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  the  sea  and 
the  dry  land ;  and  I  will  shake  all  nations,  and  the  De- 
sire of  all  nations  shall  come." 2  No  such  mighty 
overturnings  have  taken  place  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth  as  those  within  the  five  hundred  years 
preceding  the  advent  of  Christ,  from  the  beginning 
until  now ;  and  yet  this  one  people  mingled  in  them 
all,  shed  its  light  upon  them  all,  and  stood  unbroken 
through  them  all,  till  the  Lord  and  Saviour  of  all 
came  in  the  flesh  and  tabernacled  with  men. 

We  shall  follow  the  history  from  the  captivity  to 
the  advent  of  Christ,  through  the  great  monarchies 
with  which  the  Jews  were  influentially  familiar,  and 
the  marked  epochs  occurring  in  their  experience. 

1.  THE  JEWS  AS  SUBJECT  TO  THE  ASSYRIANS.  —  There 
was  a  first  and  last  invasion  of  Judea  by  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, with  an  interval  of  eighteen  years,  and  an 
intervening  hostile  visit,  in  all  of  which  captive  Jews, 
more  or  less,  were  taken  to  Babylon ;  and  thus  the 

1  Ezek.  xxi.  27.  2  Hag.  ii.  6,  7. 


166  HUMANITY  AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

captivity,  as  one  event,  filled  a  period  of  eighteen 
years.  Nebuchadnezzar  was  sent  with  an  army 
against  Egypt,  through  Palestine,  by  his  father,  Nabo- 
polassar ;  and  in  this  expedition  he  took  Jerusalem,  in 
the  fourth  year  of  Jehoiakim,  and  Daniel  and  his  com- 
panions, with  many  chief  families  of  the  Jews,  were 
sent  to  Babylon.1  In  profane  history  we  learn  that  two 
years  thereafter  Nabopolassar  died,  and  Nebuchadnez- 
zar hastened  back  to  Babylon  to  receive  the  kingdom. 
Jehoiakim  soon  refused  paying  tribute,  and  the 
armies  from  the  subject  Assyrian  provinces  overran 
Judea ; 2  and  in  these  troubles  Jehoiakim  died.  In 
the  third  month  of  Jehoiachin,  his  successor's  reign, 
Nebuchadnezzar  a  second  time  came,  and  carried 
away  the  royal  family  and  many  noble  Jews  back  with 
him  to  Babylon,  and  made  Zedekiah  king.3  Zedekiah 
soon  rebelled,  and  Nebuchadnezzar  a  third  time  came 
and  finished  the  work  of  desolation  and  captivity,  and 
put  Gedaliah  as  governor  over  the  poor  and  miserable 
families  which  he  left  in  the  land,4  This  was  the 
nineteenth  year  of  Nebuchadnezzar,5  i.  e.,  from  his 
commissioned  expedition  on  his  first  visit  to  Jerusa- 
lem, but  the  seventeenth  year  from  reigning  alone.6 

The  beginning  of  the  captivity  we  thus  put  at  the 
fourth  year  of  Jehoiakim,  and  first  of  Nebuchadnez- 
zar's royal  commission,  and  which  was  the  year 
606  B.  C. 

1  2  Kings  xxiv.  1 ;  Dan.  i.  1-7.  2  2  Kings  xxiv.  2. 

3  2  Kings  xxiv.  8-17.  4  2  Kings  xxv. ;  Jer.  xxix. 

6  2  Kings  xxv.  8.  6  Prideaux,  B.  I. 


FROM  CAPTIVITY  TO  THE  INCARNATION.  167 

The  Jews  were  then  in  Babylon  under  Assyrian 
monarchs,  as.  follows :  — 

Years.     Months. 

Nebuchadnezzar's  reign, 44  — 

Evil-merodach's  reign, 2  — 

Nerriglissor's  reign,       ......  4  — 

Laborosoarchod's  reign, 9 

Nabonadius,  or  Belshazzar?s  reign,  .     .  17  — 

Making  in  all, 67         9 

During  this  period  we  may  note  the  following  oc- 
currences and  influences :  — 

Gedaliah,  left  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  at  his  first  inva- 
sion of  Judea.  as  governor,  was  mild  and  kind,  and 
the  dispersed  families  in  the  land  gathered  themselves 
readily  under  his  rule ;  but  within  seven  months  he 
was  treacherously  slain  by  Ishmael,  with  all  his  at- 
tendants. Johanan  then  drove  Ishmael  away  to  the 
Ammonites,  and  he,  with  the  remnant  of  Jews,  re- 
moved to  the  southern  border  of  Palestine,  near  to 
Egypt,  in  fear  of  the  revenge  which  the  Chaldeans 
might  take  for  IshmaePs  treachery  and  assassination. 
Jeremiah  the  prophet  was  with  them,  and  when  they 
inquired  of  him  if  they  should  pass  over  into  Egypt, 
he,  from  the  Lord,  forbade  such  purpose.  In  defiance 
of  this,  they  determined  to  go,  and  soon  relapsed  into 
the  old  Egyptian  superstition,  and  worshipped  the 
queen  of  heaven,  joining  in  sacrifices  to  Isis.  Jere- 
miah here  denounced  the  exterminating  judgment  of 
the  future  coming  of  the  king  of  Babylon.1 

1  Jer.  xl.  to  xliv. 


168  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

Those  Jews  who  had  been  carried  to  Babylon  were 
kindly  treated,  and  Daniel  was  in  high  estimation,  and 
raised  to  eminent  civil  authority;  and  when  EviL 
merodach  took  the  kingdom,  he  freed  Jehoiaehin,  and 
gave  him  royal  support  in  his  own  palace.1  During 
Nebuchadnezzar's  reign  his  interpretation  of  the 
king's  dreams,  the  deliverance  of  his  three  friends 
from  the  burning  furnace,  and  the  madness  which, 
according  to  DaniePs  prediction,  came  upon  the  king, 
when  they  drove  him  from  the  presence  of  men  to  be 
with  the  beasts,2  —  all  this  powerfully  affected  the 
Assyrian  empire,  and  seems  to  have  made  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, on  his  recovery,  a  humble  worshipper  of  the 
true  Jehovah.3  The  steadfast  refusal  of  Shadrach, 
Meshech,  and  Abednego  to  bow  to  the  king's  golden 
image  evinces  how  soon  and  strong  the  captivity  had 
served  to  dissuade  the  Jews  from  idolatry.  Their 
own  sadness,  while  they  wept  by  the  rivers  of  Baby- 
lon, and  hanged  their  harps  on  the  willows,  and  the 
sympathy  of  their  captors,  who  asked  them  to  sing 
their  songs  of  Zion,4  all  manifest  how  effectually  God's 
dealings  with  them  were  working  out  his  own  coun- 
sels. The  seventy  years'  duration  of  the  captivity 
set  by  the  prophet 5  was  drawing  near  its  close,  and 
in  the  way  of  the  destined  deliverance,  the  Assyrian 
dynasty  was  overthrown  by  that  of  the  Medes  and 
Persians. 

1  2  Kings  xxv.  27.  2  Dan.  iii.  and  iv.          8  Dan.  iv.  34-37. 

4  Psalm  cxxxvii.  6  Jer.  xxv.  11,  xxix.  10. 


FROM   CAPTIVITY   TO   THE   INCARNATION.  169 

2.  THE  JEWS  AS  SUBJECT  TO  THE  PERSIANS.  —  The 
last  of  the  Assyrian  nionarchs  was  Belshazzar,  an 
effeminate  ruler,  who,  while  Cyrus  was  besieging  him 
in  his  capital,  gave  himself  up  to  pleasure.  At  a 
voluptuous  feast,  in  contempt  of  Jehovah,  he  ordered 
the  sacred  vessels  of  the  Jerusalem  temple  to  be 
used  in  his  drunken  revelry.  The  dread  prodigy  of  a 
supernatural  hand  appeared  writing  on  the  wall,  and 
left  the  ominous  characters  there  legible.  Daniel  in- 
terpreted them  plainly,  and  the  interpretation  was  im- 
mediately fulfilled,  in  that  the  besiegers  took  the  city 
that  very  night,  slew  Belshazzar,  and  Darius  the 
Median  took  the  kingdom.1  Cyrus  was  the  general 
who  had  taken  Babylon,  and  while  the  power  was  in 
his  hands,  he  left  Darius,  who  was  his  uncle,  and 
known  as  Cyaxares,  to  rule  at  Babylon,  while  he  pros- 
ecuted his  designs  of  further  conquest.  Darius  died 
after  about  two  years,  when  Cyrus  took  the  king- 
dom in  his  own  name.  The  Persian  monarchy  may 
be  noted  as  beginning  in  the  year  538  B.  C. 

Darius reigned    2  years. 

Cyrus "  7  " 

Cambyses,  or  Ahasuerus  of  Ezra  iv.  6    .     .     .     .  "  7  " 

Smerdis,  or  Artaxerxes  of  Ezra  iv.  7      .     .     .     .  "  1  " 

Darius  Hystaspes "  36  " 

Xerxes  the  Great "  21  " 

Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  or  Ahasuerus  of  Esther,  "  40  " 

Xerxes  II.,  known  as  Sogdianus, "  1  " 

1  Dan.  v.  31. 


170  HUMANITY  AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

Darius  Nothus reigned  19  years. 

Artaxerxes  Mnemon ;    .     .        "        46     " 

Darius  Ochus "        21     " 

Darius  Arses "          2     " 

Darius  Codomanus     .     .    .     * "          4     " 

In  all 207     " 

With  this  new  race  of  kings  at  Babylon,  God  at 
once  began  the  exhibitions  of  his  power  in  favor  of 
his  own  chosen  people.  Daniel  was  elevated  to  great 
favor  and  power,  for,  as  Darius  divided  his  new  king- 
dom into  one  hundred  and  twenty  provinces,  with 
their  rulers,  he  put  over  these  three  presidents,  the 
first  of  which  presidencies  was  given  to  Daniel.  He 
was  envied  and  hated  by  the  other  officers,  who  con- 
spired for  his  downfall.  They  knew  his  discretion  and 
probity,  and  despaired  of  success  in  their  cabal  ex- 
cept through  some  intrigue  in  the  matter  of  his  reli- 
gion. They  artfully  procured  a  decree,  unalterable 
in  law  by  any  authority,  prohibiting  any  petition  to 
any  god  or  man,  save  to  the  king,  for  thirty  days. 
Daniel  knew  the  decree,  and  the  penalty  of  being 
cast  into  the  den  of  lions ;  but  he  opened  his  window 
three  times  a  day  towards  Jerusalem,  and  prayed  to 
Jehovah  aloud  as  beforetimes.  The  issue  came,  and 
for  a  whole  night  he  lay  in  the  lions'  deji ;  and  when 
the  anxious  king  called  to  him  in  the  morning,  he  an- 
swered that  his  God,  Jehovah,  had  shut  the  lions' 
mouths,  and  he  was  safe.  Joyfully  the  king  received 
and  honored  him,  but  put  his  accusers  at  once  in  his 
place  with  the  lions,  who  immediately  devoured  them. 


FROM   CAPTIVITY  TO  THE  INCARNATION.  171 

Daniel,  and  his  people,  and  his  religion,  were  now 
respected.1 

The  seventy  years  from  Nebuchadnezzar's  first  car- 
rying the  Jews  captive  to  Babylon  terminated  in  the 
first  year  of  Cyrus.  Daniel  had  consulted  the  pro- 
phetic books  and  found  the  time,  and  prayed  and  con- 
fessed to  Jehovah,  and  had  been  answered  in  refer- 
ence to  the  time  the  Jews  should  be  restored,  and 
also  the  time  that  the  promised  Saviour  should  come 
for  the  world's  redemption.2  Among  the  books  con- 
sulted, and  which  must  have  been  laid  before  Cyrus 
by  David,  was  the  remarkable  prediction  in  Isaiah,3 
in  connection  with  the  majesty  and  sublimity  of  the  de- 
scription of  Jehovah's  unity  and  power.  That  it  was 
this  which  impressed  and  moved  Cyrus  to  restore  the 
Jews,  is  quite  manifest  from  the  decree  he  made  to 
this  end.4  The  leaders  in  the  execution  of  this  decree 
of  Cyrus  were  Zerubbabel,  the  grandson  of  Jehoiakim, 
called  in  Babylon  Sheshbazzar,  and  Joshua,  grandson 
of  the  high  priest  Seraiah,  who,  with  king  Jehoia- 
kim, had  been  among  the  first  captives.  These  two 
leaders,  with  about  fifty  thousand  Jews,  went  up  from 
Babylon  to  Judea,  with  horses,  and  camels,  and  ves- 
sels of  the  temple,  and  much  treasure,  to  build  up 
their  own  houses,  and  their  fathers'  cities,  and  the 
walls  and  temple  at  Jerusalem.6  The  Samaritans  de- 
sired to  assist,  but  they  were  not  Jews,  and  their  offer 
was  unacceptable. 

1  Dan.  VK  *  Dan.  ix.  3  Isa.  xliv.  28,  xlv. 

4  Given  in  Ezra  i.  1-4.  5  Ezra  i.  to  iii. 


172  HUMANITY  AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

On  this  account  their  real  enmity  in  heart  disclosed 
itself,  and  they  immediately  and  persistently  opposed 
the  undertaking.  They  hindered  as  they  could  all 
through  the  reign  of  Cyrus ;  they  wrote  accusing  let- 
ters of  the  Jews  to  his  successor,  Ahasuerus ;  and 
especially  to  Artaxerxes  Smerdis,  and  finally  from  him 
attained  a  command  to  make  the  Jews  stop  building, 
and  they  forced  the  Jews  to  cease  from  their  work  to 
the  time  of  Darius  Hystaspes.1  Here  was  the  same 
intervening  number  of  years  in  the  whole  period  of 
restoration,  viz.,  eighteen  years,  that  there  had  been 
between  the  first  and  last  carrying  into  captivity.  So 
that,  from  the  beginning  of  captivity  to  beginning  of 
restoration  was  seventy  years,  and  from  the  finishing 
of  captivity  till  the  full  return  was  seventy  years,  and 
from  the  beginning  to  the  completion  of  each  event 
of  captivity  and  restoration  was  a  period  of  eighteen 
years.  This  full  restoration  was  in  the  second  year 
of  Darius's  reign,  whose  decree  confirmed  that  of  Cy- 
rus, and  annulled  all  intervening  hindering  authorities.2 
After  two  years'  earnest  labor,  the  second  temple 
was  finished  and  dedicated  on  the  feast  of  the  Pass- 
over, with  great  solemnity  and  national  thanksgiving ; 
and  Darius  befriended  the  Jews  through  his  long  reign. 
He  was  followed  by  Xerxes  the  Great,  whose  famous 
Grecian  expedition  and  warlike  enterprises  absorbed 
his  attention,  leaving  Judea  to  its  own  way. 

Artaxerxes  Longimanus  followed  in  a  long  reign  of 

1  Ezra  iv.  2  Ezra  vi. 


FROM   CAPTIVITY   TJ   THE   INCARNATION.  173 

forty  years.  He  is  the  Ahasuerus  of  the  Book  of 
Esther,  and  the  occurrences  in  the  life  of  this  Jewish 
queen,  the  circumvention  of  Hainan's  design  to  extir- 
pate the  whole  Jewish  people  through  the  realm  by 
Esther's  foster-father  Mordecai,  with  the  execution  of 
Haman,  and  the  Jews'  complete  deliverance,  took 
place  early  in  his  reign.  The  temple  service  and 
general  Jewish  ordinances  had  now  been  restored  and 
regularly  observed  in  Judea  for  fifty-eight  years,  but 
the  walls  of  the  city  were  yet  unfinished,  and  many 
disorders  were  introduced  and  tolerated.  In  the 
seventh  year  of  this  king,  Ezra,  who  was  a  scribe  and 
direct  descendant  from  Aaron,  and  of  great  repute 
and  influence,  was  sent  with  a  royal  commission  to  re- 
dress all  disorders,  and  complete  and  establish  the 
work  of  Jewish  polity  and  prosperity.  By  him  the 
canon  of  Jewish  Scripture  was  collected  and  settled, 
the  ceremonial  services  orderly  arranged,  and  espe- 
cially the  great  disorder  from  foreign  marriages  was 
thoroughly  corrected.1 

Again,  in  the  twentieth  year  of  this  king,  Nehe- 
miah,  his  captain,  who  was  a  Jew,  heard  of  the  still 
incomplete  restoration  and  settlement  of  all  matters 
at  Jerusalem,  and,  at  his  request,  the  king  gave  him 
permission  to  go  up  to  Judea  and  see  what  was  its 
condition,  and  appointed  him  governor,  with  full  au- 
thority to  regulate  all  matters.  He  came  and  private- 
ly surveyed  the  still  desolate  breaches  which  had  not 
been  repaired,  and  set  himself  at  once  to  rousing  the 

1  Ezra  vii.  to  x. 


174  HUMANITY  AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

nation  to  their  duty.  He  set  the  work  of  rebuilding 
immediately  forward,  resisted  and  overcame  all  the 
machinations  of  the  old  Samaritan  opposers,  finished 
the  walls,  redressed  the  oppressions  of  the  strong 
over  the  poor,  and  in  twelve  years  mainly  accomplished 
his  work,  and  returned  to  the  king  at  Babylon.  Short- 
ly again  he  came  back  with  new  authority,  redressed 
the  Sabbath  violations  that  had  been  introduced,  and 
put  the  government  and  people  in  an  orderly  and 
prosperous  condition.1 

As  the  law  had  been  found  by  Ezra,  and  read  before 
the  people,  so  out  of  this  now  began  the  practice 
of  regularly  reading  it  in  smaller  assemblies  on  the 
Sabbath;  and  thus  was  introduced  the  long-continued 
habit  of  synagogue  worship,  which  was  everywhere 
common  among  Jews  in  the  time  of  Christ  and  his 
apostles.  After  Nehemiah,  the  province  oT  Syria 
included  Judea,  and  the  Persian  government  of  it 
was  through  the  high  priest,  and  thus  the  sacred  office 
became  much  secularized  and  corrupted.  It  so  re- 
mained for  eighty  years,  till  Alexander  the  Great  con- 
quered Persia. 

3.  THE  JEWS  AS  SUBJECT  TO  ALEXANDER  AND  HIS 
SUCCESSORS.  —  The  empire  of  the  world,  attained  by 
the  conquests  of  Alexander,  was  at  his  death  divided 
into  four  sovereignties,  under  four  of  his  distinguished 
generals  —  Cassander  over  Macedon  and  Greece  ;  Ly- 
simachus  over  Thrace  and  the  countries  bordering 

1  Neh.  throughout. 


FROM   CAPTIVITY  TO  THE  INCARNATION.  175 

the  Hellespont  on  the  west  and  the  Bosphorus  on  the 
east ;  Ptolemy  over  Egypt  and  Palestine ;  and  Seleu- 
cus  over  Babylon  and  Syria.  The  Jews  were  im- 
mediately involved  in  the  transactions  of  the  two 
latter  empires  only.  The  conflicting  interests  and 
consequent  contentions  of  these  two  made  Judea, 
standing  between  them,  the  frequent  battle-ground 
of  their  hostile  armies.  For  several  of  the  earlier 
reigns,  Judea  was  directly  subject  to  Egypt,  and 
later  in  this  period  it  was  made  a  province  of  Syria, 
while  for  the  whole  time  the  Jews  shared  in  the 
commotions  of  both,  till  their  more  independent  state 
under  the  Maccabean  heroes. 

This  period  begins  in  the  year  331  B.  C. 

Alexander,       ..." 8  years. 

Egyptian.  Ptolemy  Lagus,  ....  39  " 

"  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  .  .  38  " 

"  Ptolemy  Euergetes,  ...  25  " 

"  Ptolemy  Philopator,  ...  17  " 

"  Ptolemy  Epiphanes,  ...  19  " 

All  Egyptian  period, 146 

Syrian.   Seleucus  Philopator,     ...     11       " 
"       Antiochus  Epiphanes,  ...       8      " 

Whole  period, 165       " 

While  in  his  conquests,  Alexander  the  Great  was 
besieging  Tyre,  he  sent  into  the  neighboring  coun- 
tries of  Samaria  and  Judea,  demanding  supplies;  but 


176  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

the  Jews  were  subject  to  Persia,  then  ruled  by  Darius 
Codomanus,  and  fearing  his  displeasure,  they  refused 
the  demand  of  Alexander.  Immediately  upon  his  con- 
quest of  Tyre,  and  offended  by  this  refusal,  Alexander 
marched  with  his  army  to  Jerusalem,  intending  severe 
punishment  for  this  Jewish  slight.  Jaddua,  the  Jew- 
ish  high  priest,  met  him  on  his  coming,  clothed  with 
the  holy  vestments  of  his  divine  office,  whom  Alexan- 
der immediately  received  and  saluted  with  profound- 
est  veneration,  saying  that  this  very  personage  had 
appeared  in  a  dream  to  him  long  before  in  Macedonia, 
and  given  him  intimations  and  directions  about  his 
intended  expedition,  and  that  the  deity  of  whom  he 
was  the  priest  must  have  inspired  and  directed  his 
whole  journey.  Jaddua  read  to  him  the  prophecy  of 
Daniel,1  concerning  the  destruction  of  Persia  by  a 
Grecian  king,  and  applied  the  prophecy  to  Alexander 
himself,  who  was  so  favorably  affected  that  he  left 
Jerusalem  safe,  and  conferred  on  the  Jews  many 
favors.2 

After  Alexander's  death  at  Babylon,  and  the  divis- 
ion of  Egypt  to  Ptolemy,  the  latter  determined  to 
possess  Judea  and  the  neighboring  region,  as  an  inter- 
vening barrier  between  him  and  the  Syrian  empire 
of  Seleucus  at  Babylon.  The  Jews  resisted,  and 
closed  the  gates  of  Jerusalem  against  him.  Under- 
standing that  they  would  not  fight  on  their  Sabbath, 
Ptolemy  attacked  them  on  that  day,  routed  them,  and 

1  Dan.  viii.  20,  21. 

8  Prideaux,  anno  333  B.  C.     Stackhouse,  Bible  Hist.  p.  749. 


FROM   CAPTIVITY  TO  THE  INCARNATION.  177 

entered  the  city.  The  prophet1  had  ere  this  an- 
nounced that  special  providences  towards  the  nation 
should  cease,  and  this  is  the  first  historic  occurrence 
of  a  divinely  undefended  Sabbath  for  the  chosen 
people.  In  this  rule  of  Ptolemy  lived  Simon  the  Just, 
the  eminent  high  priest  who,  the  Jews  say,  completed 
their  Scripture  canon  after  Ezra. 

Ptolemy  Philadelphus.  succeeded  Soter,  and  kept 
up  the  library  and  literary  institutions  the  latter  had 
fostered  at  Alexandria ;  and  in  his  day  the  Septuagint 
translation  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  into  Greek  was 
effected,  and  in  this  language  the  learned  in  all  the 
nations  of  that  age  could  read  the  history  of  the 
Hebrew  Theocracy,  and  learn  the  doctrines  and  wor- 
ship of  the  true  religion.  Philopator  succeeded 
Philadelphus,  and  recovered  Jerusalem,  which  had 
for  a  season  been  out  of  Egyptian  control ;  he  de- 
termined to  enter  the  holy  place  in  the  temple  spite 
of  the  protestations  and  warnings  of  the  priests,  and 
on  his  forcible  approach  to  the  holy  of  holies,  he  was 
mysteriously  seized  with  a  sudden  fit  of  trembling 
and  spiritual  terror,  that  he  became  helpless,  and  was 
carried  out  by  his  attendants.  When  away,  his  fear 
subsided,  and  gave  place  to  rage  and  cruel  persecu- 
tion of  the  Jews,  and  preparation  for  a  general 
massacre  of  the  people.  He  made  his  elephants  drunk 
with  wine,  that  they  might  in  their  frenzy  trample  the 
Jews  to  death ;  but  they  turned  their  fury  upon  his 
own  men,  and  killed  multitudes.  His  fear  again  re- 

1  Ezek.  xviii.  2,  3. 
12 


178  HUMANITY  AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

turned,  and  he  witnessed  portents  and  prodigies  in 
the  sky,  which  induced  the  cessation  of  all  Jewish 
persecution,  and  forced  him  to  favor  the  nation  he 
still  hated. 

Ptolemy  Epiphanes  succeeded  Philopator ;  and  in 
his  nineteenth  year,  when  Seleucus  Philopator  had 
succeeded  his  father,  Antiochus  the  Great,  in  Babylon, 
Judea  was  made  a  province  of  Syria,  and  held  by 
Seleucus,  though  Epiphanes  reigned  in  Alexandria 
and  Egypt  five  years  longer.  Seleucus  treated  at 
first  the  Jews  kindly ;  but  becoming  satisfied  that 
there  were  rich  treasures  in  the  temple,  he  deter- 
.mined  on  their  possession,  and  sent  his  treasurer, 
Heliodorus,  to  rob  the  temple.  On  entering  the 
temple,  the  treasurer  was  frightened  by  what  he 
deemed  a  vision  of  angels,  and  he  hastened  out 
speechless  and  nearly  senseless,  giving  up  all  notion 
of  plunder.  Antiochus  Epiphanes  succeeded  Seleu- 
cus, and  was  a  cruel  persecutor  of  the  Jews.  He 
was  persistent  and  unrelenting  in  applying  torture 
and  barbarous  penalties  to  force  the  Jews  into  idola- 
try. But  the  superstitions  to  which  the  nation  had 
before  been  so  prone,  had  now  become  their  abomi- 
nation. They  endured  death  in  any  form  rather  than 
sacrifice  to  an  idol.1  This  persecution  and  oppression 
of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  called  out  Jewish  patriotism, 
piety,  and  courageous  resistance. 

Mattathias,  a  descendant  from  a  renowned  priest, 
Asmoneus,  with  five  sons,  began  the  heroic  contest  in 

1  2  Mac.  vi. 


FROM   CAPTIVITY  TO  THE  INCARNATION.  179 

the  place  where  they  exiled  themselves  in  the  region 
of  Dan,  to  avoid  oppression.  Here  their  tyrant  at- 
tacked them,  to  force  them  to  his  idolatrous  worship. 
Mattathias  boldly  stood  the  fight,  and  overcame  and 
slew  the  king's  messengers,  and  set  himself  upon  the 
offensive,  determined  to  drive  the  oppressive  idolaters, 
by  Jehovah's  help,  from  the  land.  He  fought  with 
desperate  valor  in  many  battles,  usually  victorious, 
and  died  one  hundred  and  forty-six  years  old,  desig- 
nating Judas,  his  eldest  son,  to  succeed  him  in  lead- 
ing on  the  opposition. 

4.  THE  JEWS  UNDER  THE  MACCABEES. — The  family 
of  the  Maccabees  were  called  Asmoneans,  from  their 
eminent  ancestor  Asmoneus,  but  the  origin  of  the 
name  Maccabee  is  not  so  readily  ascertained.  One 
derives  it  from  a  Hebrew  word  for  "  cavern,"  from 
their  early  hiding-places  against  their  persecutors; 
another  from  the  first  Hebrew  letters  of  their  adopted 
motto  upon  their  ensign,  "  Who  is  like  unto  thee 
among  the  gods,  0  Jehovah!"1  thus  giving  the 
spelling  Maccabi.  Antiochus  continued  his  spite 
against  the  Jews  and  contempt  for  their  religion 
after  the  death  of  Mattathias ;  he  profaned  the  temple, 
entering  the  holy  place  and  sacrificing  swine's  flesh 
on  the  great  altar  of  burnt-offerings,  and  filled  the 
temple  with  idols,  devoting  it  to  the  worship  of 
Jupiter  Olympus ;  he  forced  the  people  to  idolatry, 
or  tortured  them  with  every  cruelty,  and  suppressed 

1  Ex.  xv.  11. 


180  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

all  outward  worship  of  Jehovah  through  the  land. 
The  sons  of  Mattathias  resisted  these  edicts  and  efforts 
strenuously  and  boldly,  and  aroused  and  led  on  the 
people  to  the  most  courageous  conflicts  and  signal 
victories. 

166  B.  C. 

Judas  Maccabeus, 8  years. 

Jonathan       " 14      " 

Simon  " 8      " 

John  Hyrcanus, .29      " 

Aristobulus  I., 1      " 

Alexander  Janneus.    ........  27      " 

Alexandra,  queen,       .......     9      " 

Aristobulus  II., 6      " 


In  all, 102      « 

These  were  respectively  high  priests  in  their  suc- 
cessions, as  well  as  chief  captains,  except  as  queen 
Alexandra  had  Hyrcanus  as  high  priest. 

Judas  Maccabeus,  with  a  brave  band  of  followers, 
went  through  the  country  from  city  to  city,  demolish- 
ing idols  and  their  altars,  and  defeating  the  large 
armies  which  Antiochus  repeatedly  sent  into  Judea, 
under  the  successive  generals,  Apollonius,  Seron,  Ptol- 
emy Macron,  Nicanor,  Gorgias,  and  Lysias ;  over- 
throwing them  with  great  slaughter,  and  taking  large 
booty.  He  rescued  and  purified  the  temple,  and  re- 
stored its  worship  and  daily  ministrations,  and  gave 
deliverance  largely  to  the  nation.  Antiochus,  greatly 
enraged  by  these  defeats,  set  out  himself  from  Baby- 


FROM   CAPTIVITY  TO   THE  INCARNATION.  181 

Ion  with  his  army,  determined  to  make  Judea  one 
vast  sepulchre.  In  his  haste  his  chariot  was  overset, 
his  bones  broken,  and  his  bruised  body  became  ulcer- 
ated and  mortified,  and  he  died  after  great  agony, 
and  with  spiritual  horror  at  the  consciousness  of  his 
cruelty  and  wickedness  now  avenged  by  deserved 
judgments. 

The  idolatrous  nations  south-east  from  Judea,  Idu- 
means,  Ammonites,  and  Syrian  tribes,  after  this,  con- 
federated against  the  Jews,  and  Judas  went  against 
and  attacked  them,  thoroughly  routing  all  their  forces. 
The  Tyrians  and  Sidonians,  also  on  the  west,  put  them- 
selves in  hostility,  against  whom  his  brother  Simon 
was  sent  with  three  thousand  men,  and  overcame 
them.  Antiochus  Eupator,  succeeding  Epiphanes,  kept 
up  the  old  contest,  and  Judas  continued  his  success- 
ful resistance  till  he  was  slain  in  battle,  and  Jona- 
than, his  brother,  took  the  lead  after  him.  He  over- 
threw the  Syrian  general  Bachides,  who  had  been 
sent  against  him,  and  kept  up  for  life  the  successful 
contest. '  He  was  at  length  slain  by  the  treachery  of 
Demetrius,  who  afterwards  became  king  of  Syria. 
The  brother  Simon  then  led  the  patriot  band  of  Jew- 
ish warriors,  who  obtained  terms  of  peace  and  partial 
independence,  and  used  his  authority  for  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  Jews  and  the  service  of  Jehovah.  His 
son-in-law,  through  some  secret  spite,  invited  Simon 
and  two  of  his  eons,  Judas  and  Mattathias,  to  an 
entertainment,  and  treacherously  assassinated  them. 
After  this,  Hyrcanus,  the  son  of  Simon,  became  high 


182  HUMANITY   AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

priest  and  ruler,  as  the  Maccabean  brothers  had  passed 
away.  Early  in  their  rule,  or  perhaps  even  in  the  days 
of  Mattathias,  a  Jewish  court  had  been  instituted,  con- 
sisting of  seventy  of  the  most  dignity  and  veneration 
among  the  aged,  and  which  became  the  great  council 
of  the  nation,  known  as  the  Jewish  Sanhedrim,  and 
which  was  perpetuated  till  the  destruction  of  Jerusa- 
lem by  the  Romans.  The  different  sects  of  Pharisees 
and  Sadducees  were  now  being  formed  under  the 
discussions  growing  out  of  the  reviving  of  the  study 
of  the  Hebrew  law  and  ritual,  the  Pharisees  being 
strict  constructionists  of  the  letter  of  the  law,  and  the 
Sadducees  giving  a  wider  and  more  liberal  interpreta- 
tion. They  became  strongly  opposing  parties,  and 
struggled  hard  for  leading  influence  and  power  in 
the  government. 

Hyrcanus  at  first  paid  tribute  to  Syria,  but  at  length 
attained  deliverance  and  independent  authority.  He 
conquered  their  old  enemies,  the  Samaritans,  and  de- 
stroyed the  temple  Sanballat  had  built  on  Mount 
Gerizim;  subdued  the  Idumeans,  and  so  proselyted 
them  to  the  Jewish  faith  that  they  became  incorpo- 
rated with  the  nation.  He  further  made  alliance  with 
the  Romans,  whose  power  was  beginning  to  be  felt 
in  the  politics  of  the  great  nations  of  the  world.  He 
found  the  Pharisees  jealous  and  reproachful  towards 
him,  and  he  gave  in  his  adhesion  fully  to  the  Saddu- 
cees, and  took  that  sect  under  government  patronage. 
He  died  in  peace,  and  Aristobulus,  who  was  high 
priest,  took  the  government,  and  was  the  first  As- 


FROM   CAPTIVITY  TO   THE  INCARNATION.  183 

monean  who  assumed  the  title  of  king  of  Judea. 
He  was  a  very  cruel,  wicked,  desperate  ruler,  im- 
prisoning and  starving  to  death  his  mother,  and  slay- 
ing his  brothers,  and  in  one  year  dying  in  horror  of 
conscience  under  awakened  conviction  of  his  crimes. 
Alexander  Janneus  followed  in  a  stormy  reign  of  many 
years,  and  kept  Judea  in  perpetual  foreign  or  civil 
commotions.  He  was  often  in  conflict  with  his  own 
subjects,  besides  his  wars  with  foreign  enemies,  and 
with  varied  fortunes  and  often  cruelties,  he  finished 
his  reign  and  life  by  diseases  his  intemperance  and 
prodigality  had  induced,  without  having  benefited 
his  country  by  his  ceaseless  struggles.  He  gave  his 
wife  counsel  on  his  dying  bed  to  make  friends  of  the 
Pharisees,  and  she  thus  succeeded  to  the  throne,  and 
made  Hyrcanus  high  priest.  She,  with  the  Pharisees 
so  coming  into  power,  persecuted  the  Sadducees  with 
great  vindictiveness.  At  her  death  there  was  fierce 
contention  between  the  high  priest  Hyrcanus  and  his 
brother  Aristobulus  for  the  ascendency.  Aristobulus 
was  at  first  successful,  and  obliged  Hyrcanus  to  abdi- 
cate his  office  of  high  priest  in  his  favor,  and  he  took 
the  government.  Subsequently,  by  the  assistance  of  an 
Arabian  king,  Aretas,  Hyrcanus  opposed  him,  and  on 
appeal  to  the  Roman  Pompey,  Aristobulus  was  de- 
posed, and  Hyrcanus  took  the  rule.  But  Judea  was 
no  longer  independent.  Pompey  had  conquered  it, 
and  Hyrcanus  reigned  only  as  tributary  and  subject 
to  the  Romans. 
After  all  this  mingling  of  Jewish  experience  and 


184  HUMANITY  AWAITING  REDEMPTION. 

influence  with  the  great  monarchies,  Assyrian,  Per- 
sian, and  Grecian,  following  the  early  Egyptian, 
and  all  now  decayed  and  subverted,  the  Jews  begin 
their  connection  with  the  iron  dynasty  of  Rome,  the 
most  peculiar  power  the  world  has  known,  and  most 
peculiarly  fitted  to  bear  universal  sway  when  the 
•Messiah  shall  come  and  set  up  his  spiritual  kingdom. 
An  Asmonean  prince  is  on  the  throne  of  Judea,  but 
only  nominally  a  king,  for  his  power  is  all  from  Rome, 
and  he  only  a  Roman  vassal. 

5.  THE  JEWS  UNDER  THE  ROMANS.  -•-  Pompey,  the 
Roman  general,  took  Jerusalem,  and  put  Hyrcanus 
in  the  government  in  the  year  63  B.  C. 

Hyrcanus  II.  reigns     ....    24  years. 
Antigonus,  "         ....     2      " 

Herod  the  Great  till  John  came,  32     " 

In  all, 58  years,  to  birth  of  John  Baptist. 

Pompey  went  into  the  temple  and  took  note  of  all 
its  treasures,  but  he  took  nothing  away,  and  left  the 
sacred  services  to  their  regular  performance.  He 
established  Hyrcanus  in  the  high  priest's  office,  and 
committed  the  government  of  Judea  to  him,  but 
subjected  him  to  tribute,  and  forbade  his  wearing  a 
crown.  The  conflict  between  Pompey  and  Caesar,  at 
Rome,  occasioned  new  contentions  between  Aristo- 
bulus  and  Hyrcanus  at  Jerusalem,  till  Aristobulus's 
death  at  Rome,  by  poison,  and  Caesar's  ascendency 
to  power,  when  Caesar  again  confirmed  Hyrcanus  in 


FROM   CAPTIVITY  TO   THE   INCARNATION.  185 

his  sacred  office,  but  put  Antipater,  an  Idumean  con- 
vert to  Judaism,  as  procurator  in  Judea,  under  the 
counsel  of  Hyrcanus.  Antipater  had  two  sons,  Pha- 
sael  and  Herod,  and  these  he  associated  in  the  govern- 
ment with  himself,  the  former  at  Jerusalem,  and  the 
latter  in  Galilee.  Herod  was  ambitious,  prompt,  and 
bold,  and  ingratiated  himself  in  the  favor  of  Julius- 
Caesar,  who  added  to  his  power  and  influence.  An 
officer  of  Hyrcanus,  named  Malicus,  poisoned  Antip- 
ater, and  Herod  slew  him  in  revenge  for  his  father's 
death. 

Marcus  Brutus  assassinated  Julius  Caesar,  and  then 
Mark  Antony  and  Cassar  Octavianus  subdued  Bru- 
tus and  Cassius,  and  became  arbiters  of  the  Koman 
state.  Antony  came  to  Antioch,  and  while  there 
confirmed  Phasael  and  Herod  in  their  authority  as  te- 
trarchs,and  took  to  Rome  fifteen  hundred  eminent  Jew- 
ish citizens  as  hostages  for  the  quiet  of  the  province. 
Subsequently,  on  a  sedition  of  turbulent  Jews  and 
their  assault  of  Herod's  retinue,  Antony  put  these 
hostages  all  to  death  at  Rome. 

Antigonus,  a  son  of  Aristobulus,  obtained  help  from 
the  Parthians,  invaded  Judea,  and  took  Jerusalem, 
with  flyrcanus  and  Phasael,  and  cut  off  the  ears  of 
Hyrcanus,  that  thus  maimed  he  might  be  perpetually 
disqualified  from  the  priesthood.  Phasael,  believing 
his  death  was  determined,  took  his  own  life  by  poison. 
Herod  fled  to  Rome,  and  informed  his  patron,  Antony, 
of  these  occurrences  in  Judea ;  and  he,  with  Octavi- 
anus, afterwards  Caesar  Augustus,  espoused  Herod's 


186  HUMANITY    AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

cause,  and  gave  him  an  army  against  Antigonus.  With 
these  Roman  forces  Herod  returned  to  Judea,  and 
after  varied  successes  and  reverses,  took  Jerusalem, 
which  the  Roman  soldiery  plundered  against  the  will 
of  Herod,  and  who  bought  the  soldiers  off  only  by 
giving  a  large  ransom.  Antigonus,  who  had  been  in 
the  high  priesthood  for  two  years,  was  delivered  to 
the  Romans,  and  by  them  put  to  death ;  and  with  him 
terminated  the  priesthood  and  princes  of  the  Asmo- 
nean  family. 

Herod  was  now  established  in  Judea  as  the  sole 
governor,  and  attained  the  title  of  king,  but  ordina- 
rily known  as  Herod  the  Great.  He  began  by  put- 
ting down  his  enemies,  among  whom  were  many  of 
the  Sanhedrim,  and  other  eminent  Jews.  He  made 
Ananel,  a  man  of  mean  birth,  high  priest,  and  then 
deposed  him  and  put  the  brother  of  his  wife  Mari- 
amne,  named  Aristobulus,  in  his  place.  Soon  after 
Aristobulus  was  drowned  by  Herod's  order,  from  jeal- 
ousy of  his  influence  and  favor  with  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple. Herod's  cruelty  increased  to  the  greatest  excess, 
dooming  his  friends,  his  wife  Mariamne,  and  then  his 
children,  to  death,  and  in  sudden  passion  executing 
his  jealous  malignity  on  any  occasional  victim.  As 
the  natural  result,  his  own  spirit  was  perpetually  the 
prey  to  remorse  and  terrible  apprehensions.  All  this, 
and  especially  the  setting  of  the  Roman  eagle  over 
one  of  the  gates  of  the  temple,  exceedingly  exasper- 
ated the  Jews  against  him,  whom  he  soon  found  it  his 
necessary  policy  to  pacify.  To  do  this,  and  at  the 


FROM   CAPTIVITY   TO   THE   INCARNATION.  187 

same  time  gratify  his  own  ambition,  he  determined  to 
build  anew  the  temple  at  Jerusalem.  This  had  now 
stood  about  five  hundred  years  since  its  rebuild- 
ing by  Zerubbabel,  on  the  return  from  the  Babylonian 
captivity,  and  had  become  sadly  defaced  and  greatly 
decayed.  Two  years  were  given  to  collecting  mate- 
rials, and  nine  and  one  half  years  more  in  rebuilding 
so  far  that  the  daily  services  could  again  commence ; 
but  the  work  went  on  in  various  additions  and  embel- 
lishments till  his  death ;  and  then  still  on  to  the  days 
of  Christ's  ministry,  the  work  was  yet  continued,  and 
the  temple  still  in  building.1  Some  of  the  old  foun- 
dations of  Solomon's  temple  remained  in  the  second 
rebuilding,  so  that  "  the  house "  was  known  as  the 
same ; 2  and  in  this  third  building,  the  foundations  of 
the  first,  and  much  of  the  work  of  the  second,  were 
there  j  yet  was  the  increase  in  additions,  porches, 
columns,  and  adornments,  so  much  as  to  change  the 
appearance  in  proportion  and  style  to  a  new  building. 
The  eyes  of  the  nations  were  again  turned  to  Judea 
and  Jerusalem,  and  the  last  uttered  voice  of  prophecy 
was  on  the  eve  of  fulfilment,  "  Behold,  I  will  send  my 
messenger,  and  he  shall  prepare  the  way  before  me ; 
and  the  Lord,  whom  ye  seek,  shall  suddenly  come  to 
his  temple,  even  the  messenger  of  the  covenant, 
whom  ye  delight  in  ;  behold,  he  shall  come,  saith  the 
Lord  of  Hosts." 3 

On  occasions  of  Roman  peace,  the  Temple  of  Janus 
was  shut.     This  had  occurred  first  in  the  days  of 

1  John  ii.  20.  "  Hag.  ii.  3,  7,  9.  3  Mai.  iii.  1. 


188  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

Numa ;  again,  at  the  close  of  the  first  Punic  war ;  the 
third,  on  Cassius's  victory  over  Antony ;  the  fourth, 
on  Cassar's  return  from  the  war  in  Spain ;  and  now 
fifth,  and  for  twelve  years,  in  the  thirty-third  year  of 
Herod,  as  the  last,  and  a  prelude  to  the  advent  of  the 
Prince  of  Peace. 

6.  THE  MINISTRY  OF  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST.  —  In  the 
nature  of  the  case,  it  is  reasonable  to  anticipate  that 
when  God,  in  his  providence  and  ordinances,  has 
brought  his  chosen  people  to  a  state  of  knowledge 
and  expectancy  prepared  for  the  Saviour's  coming, 
and  through  them  prepared  also  the  great  nations  of 
the  world  for  his  advent,  he  should  immediately  pre- 
cede that  event  by  a  special  administration,  designed 
to  'call  attention  to  it  as  just  at  hand,  and  secure  di- 
rect and  personal  readiness  to  receive  him  and  his 
message.  Prophecy  had  long  since  indicated  that 
such  was  the  divine  purpose.  Isaiah  begins  such  an- 
nouncement by  a  most  inspiriting  message  to  the  Jew- 
ish church  :  "  Speak  ye  comfortably  to  Jerusalem,  and 
cry  unto  her  that  her  warfare  is  accomplished,  that 
her  iniquity  is  pardoned ;  for  she  hath  received  at  the 
Lord's  hand  double  for  all  her  sin."  The  prophet  then 
gives  a  summary  of  the  work  and  ministry  of  the 
Messiah's  forerunner,  under  the  figure  of  "  the  voice 
of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness,'7  and  expresses  the 
work  to  be  done  by  the  commission  —  "  Prepare  ye 
the  way  of  the  Lord ;  make  straight  in  the  desert  a 
highway  for  our  God.  Every  valley  shall  be  exalted, 


FROM   CAPTIVITY   TO   THE   INCARNATION.  189 

and  every  mountain  and  hill  shall  be  made  low,  and 
the  crooked  shall  be  made  straight,  and  the  rough 
places  plain ;  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  shall  be  re- 
vealed, and  all  flesh  together  shall  see  it,  for  the 
mouth  of  the  Lbrd  hath  spoken  it." 1  John  expressly 
applies  this  prophecy  to  himself,  when  the  Jews  sent 
messengers  to  him  to  inquire  "  who  he  was."  He 
unequivocally  answers,  "  I  am  the  voice  of  one  cry- 
ing in  the  wilderness."2  So  Malachi  announces,  "Be- 
hold, I  will  send  my  messenger,  and  he  shall  prepare 
the  way  before  me."  3  And  again,  "  Behold,  I  will  send 
you  Elijah  the  prophet  before  the  coming  of  the  great 
and  dreadful  day  of  the  Lord ;  and  he  shall  turn  the 
heart  of  the  fathers  to  the  children,  and  the  heart  of 
the  children  to  their  fathers,  lest  I  come  and  smite 
the  earth  with  a  curse."  4  This  was  the  prediction 
the  Jews  interpreted  literally,  in  reference  to  Elijah's 
second  coming ;  and  so  the  messengers  which  the 
Sanhedrim  sent  to  John  asked  him,  il  Art  thou  Elijah  ?  " 
and  in  answer  to  their  false  meaning  he  replies,  "  I  am 
not."  5  The  paraphrase  of  Luke  (i.  17)  gives  the  true 
interpretation  of  this  prediction :  "  He  (John)  shall 
go  before  him  (Messiah)  in  the  spirit  and  .power  of 
Elijah,  to  turn  the  hearts  of  the  fathers  to  the  chil- 
dren, and  the  disobedient  to  the  wisdom  of  the  just ; 
to  make  ready  a  people  prepared  for  the  Lord."  John 
came  "  in  the  spirit  and  power  of  Elijah  "  in  his  manner 

1  Isa.  xl.  1-5. 

3  J6hn  i.  22,  23 ;  also  Matt.  iii.  3 ;  Mark  i.  3 ;  Luke  iii.  4-6. 

3  Mai.  iii.  1.  4  Mai.  iv.  5,  6.  5  John  i.  21. 


190  HUMANITY  AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

of  life,  boldness  of  reproof,  and  earnestness  of  appeal ; 
and  to  see  how  striking  the  parallel  is,  take  for  Elijah,1 
and  then  for  John,2  the  subjoined  references.  And  then 
we  have  our  Lord's  own  declaration  concerning  the  ful- 
filment of  the  prophecy,  "  If  ye  will  receive  it,  this  is 
Elijah  who  was  to  come."  3  And  again,  his  declaration 
that  "  Elijah  had  already  come,"  and  the  disciples  un- 
derstanding it  of  John  the  Baptist.4  Besides  these  pro- 
phetic announcements  of  John  as  forerunner  of  Christ, 
there  seems  to  have  been  a  particular  personal  com- 
mission given  to  him  according  to  John  (i.  33) :  "  He 
that  sent  me  to  baptize  with  water,  the  same  said  to 
me,  Upon  whom  thou  shalt  see  the  Spirit  descending 
and  remaining  on  him,  the  same  is  he  who  baptizeth 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,"  Also  John  iii.  28. 

What  was  the  exact  design  of  John's  commission  ?  — 
1.  To  apprise  his  nation  that  the  Messiah  was  at  the 
door,  and  to  insist  on  their  repentance  and  its  fruits 
as  demanded  to  meet  his  advent.  Malachi  had  said, 
"  But  who  may  abide  the  day  of  his  coming  ?  and  who 
shall  stand  when  he  appeareth  ?  "  5  And  still  further,6 
"  Behold,  the  day  cometh  that  shall  burn  as  an  oven." 
They  were  on  the  very  eve  preceding  such  a  day,  and 
while  God  had  for  ages  been  teaching  them,  and  had 
brought  them  to  such  a  state  that  the  Messiah  could 
come  and  not  actually  lose  his  mission  in  the  world, 


1  1  Kings  xvii.  to  xix.,  xxi.  17-24;  2  Kings  ii.  1-11,  and  his  dress, 
i.  8.  2  Matt,  iii.,  xiv.  4;  John  i.  19-36,  iii.  23-36. 

3  Matt.  xi.  14.  4  Matt.  xvii.  9-13. 

5  Mal/iii.  2,  3.  6  Mai.  iv.  1-5. 


FROM  CAPTIVITY  TO   THE  INCARNATION.  191 

yet  were  there  few  souls  ready  and  waiting  for  him. 
A  great  moral  reformation  and  purification  of  life  were 
essential  to  save  them  from  finding  his  advent  a  curse 
to  them.  A  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  fire 
was  coming,  and  John's  mission  was  to  rouse  the  peo- 
ple to  a  spiritual  apprehension  of  it.  And  he  very 
largely  effected  it.  "Then  went  out  to  him  Jerusa- 
lem, and  all  Judea,  and  all  the  region  about  Jordan, 
confessing  their  sin."  l  Many  of  the  Pharisees  and 
Sadducees  came  to  his  baptism ;  and  the  great  burden 
of  his  preaching  was,  "  Repent,  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  at  hand.'7 

2.  To  baptize  the  Messiah  himself,  and  point  him 
out  as  the  actual  Redeemer  of  humanity.  John  not 
only  preached  repentance  to  the  people,  and  baptized 
such  as  manifested  their  obedience,  but  he  had  also 
another  end  to  accomplish  —  to  distinguish  who  the 
Messiah  was,  and  testify  his  personal  presence  to  the 
people :  "  That  he  should  be  made  manifest  to  Israel, 
therefore  am  I  come  baptizing  with  water."  2  John, 
though  a  relative,  in  the  flesh,  of  the  Saviour,  had  not 
an  acquaintance  with  him,  but  he  had  a  pre-appointed 
signal  that,  on  his  official  administration  of  baptism  to 
him,  the  Holy  Ghost  should  visibly  appear  and  remain 
upon  him.3  At  the  age  of  thirty,  the  Saviour  came 
to  John  to  be  baptized  of  him,  and  the  intimation  to 
John  that  he  was  the  Christ,  led  John  to  say,  "  I  have 
need  to  be  baptized  of  thee,  and  comest  thou  to  me  ?  "  4 

1  Matt.  iii.  5-7.  3  John  i.  31. 

3  John  i.  31  and  33.  4  Matt.  iii.  14. 


192  HUMANITY   AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

The  Saviour  let  John  know  that  he  did  not  seek 
the  baptism  of  repentance  belonging  to  John's  com- 
mission to  the  Jewish  people,  but  a  baptism  that 
rightly  consecrated  all  official  sacred  investitures, 
and  was  now  to  fulfil  his  part  in  his  entrance  upon 
his  public  Messiahship ;  and  with  such  explanation 
John  was  satisfied.  "  Then  he  suffered  him." l  The 
sign  of  the  descending  and  awhile-abiding  form  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  was  given,2  and  then  John  the  Bap- 
tist "  saw  and  bare  record  that  this  is  the  Son  of 
God.;  "  and  as  Jesus  walked  among  them,  John  again 
points  him  out,  saying,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  !  "  3 

These  two  parts  filled  John's  mission,  and  when 
they  were  accomplished,  his  administration  ceased. 
He  continued  his  testimony  while  Christ  remained  for 
some  length  of  time  after  his  baptism  in  comparative 
obscurity,  and  then  John  was  imprisoned,  and  his 
active  mission  ended. 

What  was  the  peculiar  distinction  of  John's  Baptism  ? 
—  The  Abranamic  covenant  made  provision  for  the 
admission  of  converts  from  any  Gentile  people.  Who- 
ever was  so  received  and  circumcised  came  at  once 
into  all  the  privileges  of  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews. 
A  mode  of  purification  was  established  in  connection 
with  the  rite  of  circumcision,  and  which  became  a 
formal  application  of  water,  and  known  in  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  elders  as  proselyte  baptism.  Without 
further  consideration  of  this,  it  is  sufficient  to  say, 
that  John's  baptism  was  quite  different  from  proselyte 

1  Matt.  iii.  15.  8  Matt.  iii.  16,  17.  3  Joim  i.  34-36. 


FROM   CAPTIVITY  TO  THE  INCARNATION.  193 

baptism.  His  work  was  not  bringing  converts  to 
Judaism,  but  preparation  of  Jews  for  the  advent  of 
Messiah.  The  baptisms  of  the  two  were  as  distinct 
as  the  doctrines  and  duties  they  symbolized. 

John's  baptism  also  differed  from  that  which  Christ 
instituted.  Christian  baptism  was  instituted  by  him- 
self, and  by  his  authority  stood  as  the  sacramental 
sign  of  admission  to  his  established  church  ;  but  John's 
baptism  was  before  Christ  came  and  the  Christian 
church  was  introduced,  and  for  the  end  of  introducing 
Christ  himself.  Christian  baptism  was  in  the  name  of 
the  Father,  Son,  arid  Holy  Ghost ;  but  John's  baptism 
left  his  disciples  without  hearing  that  there  was  any 
Holy  Ghost.1  John  himself  made  a  great  distinction 
between  the  two  baptisms ;  one  was  "  unto  repent- 
ance," the  other  unto  life,  purified  "  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  with  fire. "  2  Those  whom  John  baptized 
were  baptized  over  again  on  entering  the  Christian 
church;  as  the  three  thousand  Pentecost  converts 
were  all  baptized,  though  many,  and  probably  most, 
had  been  baptized  by  John.3  Christian  baptism  is 
noticed  as  baptism,  eminently  and  unqualifiedly ;  but 
John's  baptism  is  always  qualified  as  distinctive,  as 
"  baptism  of  John,"  "  baptism  of  water,"  "  baptism  of 
repentance,"  &c.  And  finally,  the  qualification  for 
John's  baptism  was  a  practical  faith  that  Christ  was 
just  coming  ;  but  of  Christian  baptism  the  prerequisite 
was  a  practical  faith  that  he  had  come,  suffered,  risen, 

1  Acts  xix.  2,  3.  2  Matt.  iii.  11. 

3  Acts  ii.  41,  xix.  3,  5. 

13 


194  HUMANITY   AWAITING    REDEMPTION. 

and  ascended.  John's  disciple  stood  above  the  Old 
Testament  saint,  in  that  he  had  added  the  belief, 
and  conduct  accordingly,  of  Christ's  immediate  coin- 
ing; but  Christ's  disciples  had  a  faith  and  conduct 
fastening  them  to  the  one  known  Christ,  as  already 
revealed  in  the  flesh.  In  John's  day  no  man  had  lived 
that  was  greater  than  he ;  but  the  least  in  Christ's 
kingdom  was  greater  than  John.1 

With  this  view  of  John's  office  and  its  administra- 
tion, there  needs  to  be  added  only  a  short  statement 
of  his  life  and  time.  Herod  had  reigned  in  Judea 
thirty-two  years  when  John  the  Baptist  was  born, 
and  his  reign  continued  three  years  longer,  covering 
the  bloody  transaction  of  slaying  the  children  of 
Bethlehem,  in  order  to  the  destruction  of  the  infant 
Saviour.  In  this  thirty-second  year  of  Herod,  the 
angel  Gabriel  appeared  to  Zacharias,  a  priest  minis- 
tering in  the  temple,  of  the  course  of  Abia,  and  told 
him  that  his  hitherto  barren  wife  Elisabeth  should 
bear  a  son,  whom  he  should  name  John,  and  who 
should  "  go  before  "  the  coming  Lord  "  in  the  spirit 
and  power  of  Elias."  2  The  history  of  John's  infancy, 
youth,  and  manhood  is  not  given  till  his  opening  min- 
istry at  thirty  years  of  age.  He  must  have  known 
the  destination  of  his  life  from  his  father  and  mother, 
and  have  doubtless  been  directed  in  training  and 
expectation  preparatory  to  it ;  but  when  the  time  for 
his  public  ministry  came,  we  have  the  abrupt  an- 
nouncement, "  In  those  days  came  John  the  Baptist, 

1  Matt.  xi.  11.  *  Luke  i.  5-25. 


FROM  CAPTIVITY  TO  THE  INCARNATION.  195 

preaching  in  the  wilderness  of  Judea."  l  Mark  be- 
gins his  Gospel  with  this  preaching  of  the  forerunner  ; 
but  Luke  is  quite  specific  in  noting  the  time  of  its 
occurrence.  "  In  the  fifteenth  year  of  the  reign  of 
Tiberius  Caesar,  Pontius  Pilate  being  governor  of 
Judea,  and  Herod  being  tetrarch  of  Galilee,  Annas 
and  Caiaphas  being  the  high  priests,  the  word  of 
God  came  to  John,  the  son  of  Zacharias,  in  the 
wilderness."  2 

In  the  forty-second  year  of  the  reign  of  Augustus 
Caesar  he  took  Tiberius  Caesar  into  partnership  with 
him  in  the  government,  and  assigned  to  him  the 
Roman  provinces.  John  was  thirty  years  of  age  at 
this  fifteenth  year  of  Tiberius,  and  thus  fifteen  years 
of  age  at  the  beginning  of  Tiberius'  reign,  as  above, 
and  his  birth  the  twenty-seventh  year  of  Augustus, 
which  was  the  thirty-third  year  of  Herod  the  Great 
in  the  kingdom  at  Jerusalem.  John  was  about  six 
months  the  senior  of  Christ,  and  Herod  died  in  his 
thirty-fourth  year  in  the  kingdom,  and  thus  had  just 
time  for  the  slaughter  of  the  children  at  Bethlehem 
after  Christ's  birth,  before  his  own  death.  Valerius 
Gratus  had  been  made  procurator  of  Judea  by  Tibe- 
rius, after  the  death  of  Augustus,  and  in  his  own 
full  reign;  and  this  Gratus  had  deposed  Annas 
from  the  high  priest's  office,  and  while  Annas  was 
yet  living  had  made  several  successive  high  priests 
and  removed  them,  and  this  very  fifteenth  year  of 
Tiberius'  reign  had  at  last  made  Joseph,  called  Caia- 

1  Matt.  iii.  1.  2  Luke  iii.  1,  2. 


196  HUMANITY  AWAITING   REDEMPTION. 

phas,  high  priest,  while  Annas  the  old  high  priest  still 
lived.  Within  this  year  of  Caiaphas'  appointment  to 
the  high  priest's  office,  Gratus  was  himself  recalled  to 
Rome,  and  Pontius  Pilate  was  put  in  his  place  in  the 
government  of  Judea,  and  Herod  Antipas  was  then 
tetrarch  of  Galilee;  and  thus  all  stood  as  Luke  re- 
lates at  John's  opening  ministry. 

The  reckoning  of  time  from  the  Christian  era  com- 
menced in  the  sixth  century,  and  mistakingly  began 
the  date  four  years  later  than  Christ's  birth,  and  so 
this  year  of  John's  commencing  ministry  was  accord- 
ing to  the  vulgar  reckoning  26  A.  D.  About  six 
months  from  its  commencement,  he  baptized  the  Lord 
Jesus,  and  in  the  fulfilment  of  his  dispensation  in 
pointing  him  out  as  the  Messiah  already  come,  he 
v  must  have  occupied  a  much  longer  time,  according  to 
Prideaux'  reckoning  three  years ;  and  others  make, 
some  two  years  and  some  one  year.  He  was  then 
cast  into  prison  by  Herod  Antipas  for  plainly  rebuk- 
ing his  adulterous  connection  with  Herodias,  the  wife 
of  his  brother  Philip.  Prideaux  makes  this  imprison- 
ment to  have  lasted  a  year,  during  which  time  John's 
disciples  came  to  Christ,  in  doubt  about  fasting,  while 
Christ's  disciples  did  not  fast.1  And  then,  again, 
perhaps  desponding  at  his  hard  lot,  or,  as  may  be,  seek- 
ing an  opportunity  to  strengthen  his  disciples'  faith  in 
Jesus'  Messiahship  beyond  his  own  teaching,  he  sent 
two  of  them  to  Jesus  to  ask  if  he  were  "  the  Saviour 
that  was  to  come,  or  if  they  were  to  expect  another."  2 

1  Matt.  ix.  14-17.  2  Matt.  xi.  2-6. 


FROM  CAPTIVITY  TO   THE  INCARNATION.          '197 

At  the  time  of  their  presence,  Jesus  took  occasion  to 
work  many  miracles,  and  preach  the  truth  plainly  to 
the  poor  sufferers  he  healed,  and  then  sent  his  disci- 
ples back  to  John  to  tell  him  what  they  had  seen  and 
heard  in  confirmation  that  he  was  the  Christ,  and  to 
assure  John  of  Christ's  blessing  if  he  held  his  confi- 
dence full  to  the  testimony  given.1 

Soon  after  this,  Herodias'  daughter  danced  before 
Herod  on  a  convivial  occasion,  and  so  pleased  him 
that  he  promised,  with  an  oath,  to  give  her  what  she 
should  ask.  She,  instructed  by  her  mother,  whose 
harbored  spite  towards  John,  for  his  reproof  to  Herod 
on  her  account,  had  made  nothing  to  be  so  desirable 
to  her  as  the  death  of  the  stern  reprover,  asked 
Herod  to  give  to  her  John  Baptist's  head.  By  Her- 
od's order,  John  was  at  once  executed  in  prison,  and 
his  head  brought  to  the  daughter  and  mother  in  a 
charger.2  His  disciples  took  the  headless  body  and 
buried  it,  and  went  and  told  Jesus.3 

We  now  finish  this  chapter  of  the  history  of  God's 
dealings  with  mankind,  through  long  ages,  to  get  the 
world  ready  for  the  Redeemer  to  come  among  men, 
and  next  open  a  chapter  for  the  consideration  of  his 
advent,  and  establishment  of  his  kingdom,  and  ful- 
filment of  all  his  purpose  and  promise  in  saving 
the  lost. 

1  Luke  vii.  19-23.         2  Matt.  xiv.  10,  11.        3  Matt.  xiv.  12. 


198    REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    INCARNATION,    WITH    THE    WORK    AND 
DOCTRINE    OF    REDEMPTION. 

THE  same  person  in  the  Godhead,  who  has  created 
the  worlds,  and  made  man  upon  this  earth,  when  man 
sinned  has  promised  a  way  of  redemption  for  him, 
and  has  been  working  upon  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
through  his  chosen  people,  to  prepare  the  way  for 
the  coming  of  the  promised  Deliverer ;  and  now,  with 
the  preparation  made,  it  is  also  the  same  second  per- 
son of  the  Trinity  who  is  to  be  Redeemer,  and  come 
and  dwell  among  men,  to  open  the  door  for  the  fallen 
to  rise  again  into  favor  and  communion  with  God.  It 
is  thus  still  the  dispensation  of  the  Logos  that  we 
further  contemplate  through  this  chapter ;  but  not  as 
tracing  successive  transactions  and  occurrences  his- 
torically any  more,  we  rather  take  the  records  the 
evangelists  have  given,  and  from  them  show  who 
the  Redeemer  is,  and  what  is  the  redemption  he  has 
wrought  out  for  humanity. 

What  he  has  already  done,  in  covenant  connection 
with  Abraham's  seed,  has  put  the  race  in  condition 
for  his  alliance  with  it  more  intimately  than  before. 


THE  INCARNATION.  199 

Iniquity  and  idolatry  are  still  widely  prevalent,  but 
one  nation  has  been  cured  of  its  pagan  tendencies, 
and  been  brought  formally  to  worship  the  one  true 
Jehovah.  They  have,  moreover,  thrown  so  much 
light  over  the  polytheistic  world,  that  the  idolatrous 
nations  have  been  obliged  to  recognize  in  the  Jeho- 
vah of  Israel  a  Deity  more  powerful  and  pure  than 
any  of  their  patron  gods.  They  have  also  been  made 
to  expect,  through  Hebrew  ritual  and  prophecy,  the 
speedy  coming  of  a  heavenly  Messenger,  who  shall 
bring  with  him  divine  deliverance  for  sorrowing  hu- 
manity. Most  of  his  own  covenant  people  will  be 
found  still  too  sensuous  to  receive  him,  and  faith  in 
his  salvation  will  make  but  slow  progress  among  the 
Gentiles ;  but  so  many  hearts  have  been  made  open 
for  him,  that  the  great  Redeemer  may  now  come  and 
live  among  men,  and  preach  his  new  Gospel  of  Salva- 
tion to  them,  and  the  spiritual  truths  he  shall  reveal 
shall  not  fall  on  a  soil  wholly  barren.  The  world's 
salvation  will  now  be  more  rapidly  hastened  by  his 
coming  personally  in  it,  than  by  any  longer  delay  in 
preparation  for  him ;  "  the  fulness  of  time  "  has  thus 
come,  and  the  incarnation  of  Jehovah  is  at  hand.  He 
who  made  all  things,  and  crowned  his  work  on  earth 
with  man,  is  now  to  be  made  flesh  and  dwell  with 
men. 


200  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 


SECTION   I. 

THE  INCAKNATION  OF  THE  LOGOS. 

/  SPECULATIVE  Reason  can  walk  alone  here  just  as 

little  as  in  determining  the  work  of  creating  the 
heavens  and  the  earth.  Phenomenal  facts  must  first 
be  apprehended,  and  in  them  the  insight  of  reason 
must  read  the  traces  of  God's  handiwork  ;  and  equally 
so  in  redemption ;  revealed  facts  must  be  the  symbols 
in  which  reason  shall  read  God's  spiritual  meaning. 
The  facts  are  indeed  a  dead  letter  to  sense,  and  all 
logical  deductions  from  sense ;  but  they  have  in  them 
a  living  meaning  to  reason's  insight,  and  which  can 
by  no  possibility  be  brought  into  contemplation,  ex- 
cept by  reason  alone.  They  contain  spiritual  truth, 
and  this  must  be  spiritually  discerned,  not  sensibly 
perceived,  nor  logically  deduced  from  any  sense-per- 
ceptions. Yet  while  the  spiritual  eye  may  read,  the 
insight  can  get  no  more  truth  than  God  has  put  with- 
in the  record ;  all  this  contemplative  reason  may  see, 
and  boldly  should  strive  to  read  all  that  the  record 
contains. 

1.    THE  REDEEMER  is  BORN  OF  A  VIRGIN.  —  Two 
evangelists  only  give  the  specific  record  of  the  facts 


THE  INCARNATION.  201 

in  the  Redeemer's  incarnation,  viz.,  Matthew1  and 
Luke.2  John  3  states  pre-existing  truths,  and  teaches 
fundamental  doctrine,  beyond  any  other  evangelist, 
about  "  the  word  made  flesh ;  "  but  John  records  noth- 
ing concerning  the  birth  from  a  human  mother.  The 
evangelical  Epistles,  also,  communicate  much  valuable 
and  valid  doctrine  of  the  coming  of  our  Lord  from 
heaven  to  earth,  but  do  not  say  anything  descriptive 
of  the  manner  by  which  the  Logos  entered  into  hu- 
manity. We  may  take  these  teachings  afterwards 
and  interpret  the  historic  narrative  by  them,  but  the 
first  lesson  to  learn  is  in  these  distinct  and  particular 
records  of  the  above  two  evangelists:  There  is  doubt- 
less more  meaning  here  than  the  human  mind  has  yet 
recognized ;  and  all  that  is  here  God  would  have  men 
carefully  contemplate,  and  comprehensively  appropri- 
ate. He  designed  here  to  communicate  supernatural 
truths ;  and  as  he  has  given  to  man  reason  competent 
to  discern  supernatural  truth,  it  cannot  be  to  God's 
honor  that  any  man  should  deem  the  sanctity  of  the 
mysteries  forbids  an  honest  and  hopeful  attempt  to 
attain  the  supernatural  communication.  The  danger 
is  twofold;  that  some  shall  sink  the  whole  in  bald 
naturalism,  or  that  others  shall  take  the  supernatural- 
ism  to  be  too  profound  for  human  comprehension. 

The  account  in  Luke  has  all  that  Matthew  gives, 
and  is  the  more  explicit  and  particular.  There  is 
here,  moreover,  the  advantage  of  having  the  account 
of  John  the  Baptist's  foretold  birth  and  mission,  paral- 

1  Matt.  i.  18-25.  2  Luke  i.  26-80.  3  John  i. 


202  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

lei  with  the  account  of  the  birth  and  mission  of  the 
Messiah ;  and  the  comparisons  and  contrasts  in  the 
two  will  greatly  help  in  comprehending  the  truths 
belonging  to  the  Redeemer's  personality.  We  thus 
carefully  note  the  record  in  the  Gospel  of  Luke. 

We  have  the  account  concerning  John  of  the  angel 
Gabriel  appearing  to  the  priest  Zacharias  in  the  tem- 
ple, and  foretelling,  antecedently  to  his  conception,  the 
birth  of  his  son,  and  that  he  should  call  his  name  John ; 
that  this  son  should  be  the  Lord's  forerunner,  and 
should  turn  the  faith  of  many  in  Israel  to  the  Re- 
deemer's advent.  Beyond  the  angel's  foresight,  what 
was  here  supernatural  was  the  quickening  of  Elisa- 
beth from  barreness ;  the  making  of  the  father  dumb 
till  the  birth  occurred,  and  then  healing  him,  and  the 
endowing  of  the  child  with  unwonted  spiritual  power 
by  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  this  child,  given  under  such 
supernatural  conditions,  was  a  human  being  only. 
Zacharias  was  his  father,  as  Elisabeth  was  his  mother; 
and  John  was  a  descendant  of  his  parents  by  ordinary 
generation,  just  as  they  and  he  were  natural  descend- 
ants from  the  first  man  and  woman. 

Six  months  after,  the  same  angel  Gabriel  appeared 
to  the  virgin  Mary,  and  foretold  the  birth  of  a  son  from 
her,  and  that  she  should  call  his  name  Jesus ;  that  he 
should  have  an  endless  kingdom,  and  be  known  as 
the  Son  of  the  Highest.  Mary's  conscious  virginity 
induced  the  scrupulous  inquiry  how  such  an  event 
could  be.  The  answer  was  direct,  and  intentionally 
unequivocal  and  emphatic,  that  the  conception  should 


THE  INCARNATION.  203 

be  miraculous.  The  living  seed  should  be  God's  crea- 
tion in  a  virgin  ovarium,  and  the  originated  embryo 
should  there  grow  to  the  birth ;  and  that  "  the  holy 
thing  which  shall  be  born  of  thee  shall  be  called  the 
Son  of  God."  In  this  is  the  parallelism  between 
John's  and  Jesus'  birth,  that  they  are  both  human 
and  born  of  woman ;  and  so  Jesus  is  man  as  truly  as 
John.  But  beyond  the  parallel,  there  springs  a  con- 
trast, for  while  John  is  son  of  Zacharias,  Jesus  is  Son 
of  God. 

And  here,  taking  solely  the  evangelical  narrative, 
perhaps  it  might  be  said,  Adam  was  created  man 
directly  by  God  with  no  previous  parentage,  and 
tracing  up  the  genealogy  of  Jesus  to  Adam,  Luke 
says  of  Adam,  "  who  was  the  son  of  God." 1  And 
now  Adam,  though  truly  human,  was  -yet  no  more 
than  human :  may  it  not  then  be  accepted  that  this 
is  the  whole  meaning  of  the  appellation  "  Son  of 
God,"  and  that  of  Jesus,  this  alone  is  true,  he  is  a 
mere  man  immediately  originated  from  God  ?  Leaving 
here  the  narrative  to  be  in  other  things  interpreted  as 
it  may,  in  this  there  is  no  dispute  —  that  it  teaches 
Jesus  was  man,  and  originally,  as  was  Adam,  immedi- 
ately from  God.  But  from  other  authentic  and  in- 
spired sources,  we  have  the  clear  revelation  — 

2.    JESUS    WAS    BORN    MORE    THAN     HUMAN.  —  Admit 

that  Adam  and  Jesus  have  their  parallel  in  their 
direct  divine  origination ;  they  find  also  their  con- 

1  Luke  iii.  38. 


204          REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

trast  in  that  Adam  then  began  while  Jesus  had  pre- 
existence.  "  The  Word  was  made  flesh/'  but  this 
"  Word  was  in  the  beginning  with  God."  l  Of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  apostle  Paul  declares,  "  who  thought  it  not 
robbery  to  be  equal  with  God,  took  upon  himself  the 
form  of  a  servant,  and  was  made  in  the  likeness  of 
sinful  men."2  And  it  is  this  contrast  precisely  which 
the  same  apostle  affirms  between  Adam  and  Jesus 
Christ,  when  he  says,  "  The  first  man  is  of  the  earth, 
earthy ;  the  second  man  is  the  Lord  from  heaven."  3 
While,  then,  it  is  plain  that  in  this  son  of  Mary  we 
have  a  man  in  all  respects  like  other  men  born  of 
woman,  except  that  his  origin  as  man  was  immediately 
from  God,  as  plain,  also,  is  it  that  in  this  birth  we 
have  more  than  man — .even  that  which  did  not  then 
begin,  but  pre-existed  from  all  beginning.  Unlike  any 
other  being,  in  his  full  personality  he  is  the  one  only 
living  God-man. 

We  should  presume  too  much  on  the  cultivation  of 
human  reason  to  suppose  that  in  this  age  the  full  com- 
prehension of  this  strictly  unique  being  might  be  at- 
tained by  any  man.  Even  angels  desire  to  look  deep- 
er and  see  more.4  Yet  as  the  ages  pass  onward,  the 
reason  of  humanity  does  advance  in  philosophic  and 
theologic  comprehension ;  and  this  deep  mystery 
of  godliness  —  God  manifest  in  the  flesh  —  is  less  a 
mystery,  though  no  less  in  majesty  and  glory,  than  it 
was  in  earlier  ages;  and  some  things  concerning  it 

1  John  i.  1-14.  2  Phil.  ii.  6,  7. 

3  1  Cor.  xv.  47.  4  1  Pet.  i.  12. 


THE   INCARNATION.  205 

are  more  adequately  contemplated  by  us  than  they 
were  by  our  fathers.  And  the  more  we  may  know  of 
it,  through  our  deep  and  reverent  study,  the  more 
shall  we  profit  man  and  please  God. 

Physical  life  propagates  itself  in  sexual  generation 
from  age  to  age.  In  the  vegetable,  the  life  is  mere 
unconscious  instinct,  spontaneously  working  itself  out 
in  successive  flower  and  fruit  from  year  to  year.  But 
something  can  never  originate  from  nothing,  and  the 
product  have  more  than  was  in  the  producer.  Plant- 
life  can  never  go  over  in  fructification  to  the  higher 
kingdom  of  animal  life.  The  irritability  of  nerve  and 
contractibility  of  muscle  must  first  be,  or  animal  sen- 
sation and  locomotion  cannot  be.  Bodily  organs  may 
be  given  in  less  or  more  varieties,  but  the  organ  first 
must  be,  or  sense-perception  can  have  no  manifesta- 
tion ;  and  in  sex-propagation,  the  mere  plant-parentage 
can  never  beget  an  animal  offspring.  And  so  again, 
the  animal  can  never  pass  into  the  sphere  of  the 
human,  and  use  the  insight  of  reason  in  philosophy, 
morals,  and  religion,  from  a  mere  sentient  organism. 
There  must  be  the  human  body  for  the  human  spirit, 
and  the  mere  animal  cannot  beget  the  man.  Sense 
must  be  an  original  superinduction  upon  plant-life,  and 
then  reason  kmust  be  superinduced  upon  animal  sense, 
and  the  higher  life  can  alone  work  out  the  higher 
organism. 

We  know  this  to  be  reason's  truth  and  reason's 
order,  and  hence  we  know  it  to  be  nature's  necessity  j 
and  nowhere  was  nature  ever  found  to  step  over  this 


206  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

order  of  Absolute  Reason  in  any  kingdom  of  propa- 
gated successions.  Any  interchange  of  organic  func- 
tion in  organic  grades  is  at  once  known  as  supernatu- 
ral; and  it  was  as  really  a  miraculous  interposition 
which  made  the  dumb  ass  to  speak,  as  it  would  be  to 
make  trees  walk,  or  plants  hear.  The  exigency  must 
demand  the  supernatural  interposition,  and  then  in 
nature  will  be  given  the  manifestation.  For  the  work 
of  redemption  there  comes  the  need  that  humanity  be 
exalted  to  the  divine ;  that  is,  Deity  must  manifest 
himself  in  the  experiences  of  humanity,  and  no  sexu- 
ally generated  organism  can  be  competent  to  the 
emergency.  Even  Adam's  body,  as  he  was  first  cre- 
ated man,  would  not,  as  a  tabernacle,  be  fitting  for  the 
indwelling  of  Jehovah,  and  much  less  any  body  in 
sexual  descent  from  him  after  the  vitiation  of  his  fall. 
There  must  here  be  the  Lamb  without  spot ;  a  sacri- 
fice for  sin  which  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats,  and 
even  the  offering  of  a  human  first-born,  cannot  be 
made  adequately  to  answer.  Wherefore,  when  the 
divine  Redeemer  comes,  it  must  be  that  in  honest, 
hearty  satisfaction  he  can  say  to  the  Father,  "  A  body 
hast  thou  fitted  for  me." :  It  is  not  an  angel  form  that 
he  may  assume,  nor  angelic  experience  into  which  he 
is  consciously  to  enter,  but  as  the  seed  of  Abraham, 
and  partaker  of  flesh  and  blood,  so  that  between  God 
and  offending  man  he  may  stand  as  faithful  high  priest, 
making  reconciliation  with  sovereignty  on  one  side, 
and  succoring  the  tempted  on  the  other.2  Hence,  too, 

1  Heb.  x.  5.  2  Heb.  ii.  14-18. 


THE  INCARNATION. 

when  the  Son  is  sent  forth  into  the  world 

he   must  be   "made   of  a  woman,  made^nj£fcM-j.tb& 

law ;  "  l  and  yet  not  in  ordinary  generation,  as  just 


seen,  but  he  must  be  born  of  a  virgin  whom  "  the 
power  of  the  Highest  has  overshadowed." 2  Here 
are  the  conditions  which  we  may  now  see  can  alone 
consistently  introduce  the  divine  to  participation  with 
the  human.  So  existing,  the  Messiah  is  truly  "  IMMAN- 
UEL  —  God  with  us." 

3.  THE  REDEEMER,  so  BEING,  is  STILL  ONE  BEING. 
—  The  tree  is  one  as  truly  as  the  stone  is  one.  There 
is  a  force  pervading  the  stone,  which  may  be  termed 
cohesion,  or  chemical  combination,  that  holds  all  parts 
together  and  makes  a  whole.  And  in  the  tree  there 
is  a  profounder  bond  pervading  every  part,  and  the 
one  life  everywhere  grasps  root  and  trunk  and  branch 
in  unity,  and  makes  the  many  still  a  single.  This  tree- 
life  put  upon  mere  force  gives  to  us  the  tree  as  one, 
in  a  higher  and  more  comprehensive  sense  than  the 
force  of  cohesion  gives  to  us  the  stone  as  one. 
Through  the  everywhere  diffused  life  in  which  the 
parts  grow  together,  we  know  the  tree  to  be  more  a 
unit  than  the  stone  which  has  its  parts  only  stuck  to- 
gether. And  then,  again,  the  animal  has  not  only,  as 
the  tree,  everywhere  life  diffused  through  it,  but  over 
and  above  life,  there  is  everywhere  sensation  all-per- 
vading. This  one  sense  holds  the  animal  in  higher 
identity  than  the  one  life  does  the  plant;  and  we 

1  Gal.  iv.  4.  8  Luke  i.  34,  35. 


208  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

know  the  sense  in  every  member  and  organ  to  be  the 
same,  and  making  the  body  one  in  its  one  feeling,  in  a 
profounder  meaning  than  that  the  tree  is  one  in  its 
one  life.  As  life  is  a  deeper  bond  than  force,  so  sense 
is  a  more  sublimated  connective  than  vitality.  And 
then,  when  reason  is  put  over  sense  in  man,  and  gives 
him  insight  of  phenomenal  principles  and  laws,  and 
enables  him  to  guide  his  actions  by  science,  taste,  and 
conscience,  it  puts  the  whole  man  under  self-control, 
and  the  one  will  is  made  regulative  of  all  sense-expe- 
rience. The  man  is  then  one  in  his  personality  in  a 
higher  sense  than  any  plant  or  animal  is  one.  The 
whole  animal  sense  is  taken  in,  and  thoroughly  suffused 
by,  the  superinduced  rationality. 

All  this  opens  the  light  upon  the  unity  of  Jesus 
Christ's  personality.  His  manhood  is  one,  as  with  all 
men ;  but  there  is  put  upon  the  man  the  higher  con- 
nective of  the  divine,  and  the  very  will  and  person- 
ality of  Jehovah  is  integrated  in  the  human  reason, 
and  lifts  the  man  within  the  comprehensive  sphere  of 
divine  intelligence  and  action.  One  divine  will  and 
consciousness  holds  sense  and  human  reason  in  unity, 
and  the  oneness  of  the  divine  Redeemer  is  as  superior 
to  that  of  man,  as  Absolute  Reason  transcends  the  en- 
dowment of  human  rationality. 

Now,  in  the  Godhead,  as  Absolute  Reason,  there  is 
the  distinct  will  that  plans,  and  has  within  itself  the 
Ideal ;  and  the  separate  will  that  objectifies,  and  gives 
Expression;  and  the  still  other  will,  that  puts  idea 
and  object  in  consistent  comprehensive  Unity ;  and 


THE  INCARNATION.         ,  209 

these  three  wills,  in  their  discrimination,  are  three 
persons  in  their  own  conscious  activities,  and  can  be 
recognized  in  nothing  so  appropriate  as  respective 
personalities.  And  yet  are  the  three  not  so  many 
beings,  for  the  being  of  all  is  in  the  one  Absolute 
Reason.  And  the  personality  incarnated  in  the  Re- 
deemer is  the  second,  known  as  Logos,  or  Word,  i.  e., 
the  expresser,  or  outward  manifester  of  the  unseen 
Ideal.  This  Word  originally  was  "  with  God,"  and 
"  was  God,"  and  here  is  "  made  flesh  ;  "  entering  truly 
into  humanity.  This  complexity,  as  One  in  Jesus 
Christ  the  Redeemer,  reconciles  the  many  apparent 
paradoxical  representations  given  of  him  in  the  Gos- 
pels. Thus,  "  he  came  down  from  heaven,"  and  while 
on  earth  talking  with  his  disciples  he  was  also  "in 
heaven." l  He  says  also  of  himself,  "  I  and  my  Father 
are  one  ; " 2  and  then  again,  "  My  Father  is  greater 
than  I ; " 3  and  also,  "  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath 
seen  the  Father."  4  And  so,  also,  we  have  the  repre- 
sentation, that  this  assuming  of  a  human  body  and 
dwelling  with  men  was  a  humbling  condescension, 
involving  much  personal  sacrifice.  "He  made  him- 
self of  no  reputation ; "  "  he  humbled  himself,  and 
became  obedient." 5  "  He  became  poor,  that  ye 
through  his  poverty  might  be  rich."  6  His  perfection, 
as  Redeemer  of  men,  is  through  suffering.7  There 
must  needs  be  occasion  for  speaking  of  the  Redeemer 

»  John  iii.  13.  8  John  x.  30.  3  John  xiv.  28. 

4  John  xiv.  9.  6  Phil.  ii.  7.  6  2  Cor.  viii.  9. 

7  Heb.  ii.  10. 

14 


210  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

in  all  the  phases  of  his  complex  being,  viz.,  as  God  in 
Trinity,  as  man  in  the  flesh,  and  as  both  God  and  man 
in  his  mediation.  It  would  be  impossible  to  fill  out 
his  record  in  redemption  without  giving  more  or  less 
such  paradoxical  exhibitions  of  him.  As  Redeemer 
of  men  he  is  one,  and  yet  not  complete  in  his  oneness, 
except  as  the  divine  takes  up  in  its  unity  the  animal 
sense  and  the  human  spirit,  and  makes  them  a  unit  in 
its  absolute  unity.  This  one  virgin-birth  raised  hu- 
manity into  the  sphere  of  God-consciousness,  and 
brought  Deity  into  the  sphere  of  human  experience. 
While  in  the  man- Jesus  "  dwelt  all  the  fulness  of  the 
Godhead  bodily," l  in  the  Jehovah-Jesus  was  the  sus- 
ceptibility to  be  "  touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  in- 
firmities."2 So  incarnated,  Deity  can  be  tempted; 
so  exalted,  humanity  can  endure  any  temptation  with- 
out sin. 

4.  THIS  ONE  REDEEMER  is  IN  HIMSELF  PROPHET, 
PRIEST,  AND  KING.  —  Not  as  offices  conferred  upon 
him,  and  into  which  he  has  been  inaugurated  by 
some  separate  authority,  but  in  his  own  essence 
such  offices  already  belong  to  him  in  the  mode  of  his 
existence. 

He  is  Prophet  in  the  acceptation  that  the  message 
he  brings  from  above  needs  not  to  be  first  delivered 
to  him,  but  stands  already  in  his  own  omniscient  con- 
sciousness. What  Jesus  communicates  is  just  what 
God  himself  is.  His  truth  is  the  truth  in  God.  His 

1  Col.  ii.  9.  *  Heb.  iv.  15. 


THE  INCARNATION.  211 

exhibited  feeling  is  God's  feeling ;  his  will  is  God's 
will.  He  says  of  himself,  "  I  do  always  those  things 
that  please  the  Father."1  And  the  Father  says  of 
him,  "  This  is  my  beloved  Sou,  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased." 2  His  pleasure  is  God's  pleasure,  and  seen 
through  its  expression  in  his  life  and  daily  action  and 
conversation,  we  see  directly  into  the  heart  and  pur- 
pose of  God.  "  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the 
Father."  Jesus  has  Divinity ;  he  is  Deity ;  and  in 
himself  he  expresses  what  the  Godhead  is. 

And  so,  moreover,  he  is  mediating  High  Priest,  not 
as  taking  commissioned  authority  from  superior  sover- 
eignty, and  delegated  representation  from  assenting 
subjects,  and  so  acting  by  consent  and  sufferance  of 
parties;  but  in  what  he  is  he  already  touches  both 
parties,  and  has  within  himself  the  interests  both  of 
man  and  God.  Essentially  he  is  Mediator  between 
the  two,  and  he  can  no  more  renounce  the  wants  of 
man  than  the  claims  of  God.  His  intercession  is  hu- 
manity interceding,  just  as  his  pardoning  and  accept- 
ing is  the  valid  justification  by  God.  "  I  knew  that 
thou  hearest  me  always."  3 

His  mediatorial  Reign  also  is  his  essential  preroga- 
tive. To  be  so  born  of  a  virgin  gives  inheritance  to 
the  sceptre  of  humanity.  It  is  a  dominion  to  which 
mere  man  could  not  be  exalted,  and  one  which,  out 
of  the  flesh,  God  could  not  condescend  to  take.  But 
the  humbling  of  himself  to  be  born  of  woman,  and 
become  obedient  to  the  death  of  the  cross,  makes  it 

1  John  viii.  29.  *  Matt.  iii.  17,  *  John  xi.  42. 


212 

his  right  to  be  highly  exalted  as  "  King  in  Zion,"  and 
"  head  over  all  things  to  his  church."  His  triumphant 
resurrection  gives  into  his  hand  the  "keys  of  Hell 
and  of  Death/'  and  sets  him  on  "  the  right  hand  of 
the  Throne  of  Majesty  in  the  Heavens." 

In  all  these  offices  he  bears,  it  is  in  virtue  of  what 
is  essential  in  him  that  he  determines  how  to  execute 
them.  It  is  his  to  say  what  he  will  reveal  as  Prophet, 
when  he  will  intercede  and  when  pronounce  absolu- 
tion as  High  Priest,  and  how  legislate,  and  judge,  and 
execute  as  Mediatorial  Sovereign;  and  all  he  so  does 
stands  forever  in  the  validity  of  Absolute  Authority. 
The  Absolute  Reason,  in  redeeming  a  lost  race,  re- 
quires a  second  person  for  the  manifestation  of  his 
secret  plan  and  counsel,  just  as  in  the  eternal  Ideal 
of  created  worlds  there  must  be  the  manifesting  will 
that  fixes  them  in  objective  steadfastness;  and  it  is 
by  the  same  second  Person,  as  Son,  God  redeems 
humanity,  that  it  was  by  whom  also  in  the  beginning 
"  he  made  the  worlds." l 

1  Heb.  i.  2. 


LIFE  AND   WORK  IN  THE  FLESH.  213 


SECTION  II 

THE    REDEMPTIVE    WOEK    AS    WROUGHT    IN    HUMAN 
FLESH. 

THE  coming  of  Christ  in  the  flesh,  and  so  taking 
Humanity,  was  the  great  redeeming-work  of  God. 
This  has  in  it  all  the  virtue  for  salvation  that  any 
subsequent  manifestation  can  bring  out  of  it,  and  in 
itself,  to  the  divine  comprehension,  expresses  the 
length  and  breadth,  the  height  and  depth,  of  the  love 
of  God ;  and  has  in  it,  too,  all  the  purpose  and  promise 
of  the  first  announcement  of  redemption  after  the  fall, 
when  God  said  of  the  enmity  between  the  seed  of  the 
woman  and  the  seed  of  the  serpent,  "  It  shall  bruise 
thy  head,  and  thou  shalt  bruise  his  heel."  But  to 
finite  spirits,  and  especially  to  human  reason,  this 
"  mystery  of  godliness"  will  not  have  its  hidden 
truth  unfolded  but  through  a  life-and-death-experi- 
ence,  which  shall  carry  out  before  them  the  very 
work  of  self-sacrifice  which  is  essentially  in  the 
very  incarnation  itself.  This  has  already  been  pre- 
figured as  plainly  as  ritual  representations  could 
effect  it,  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  paschal  lamb,  and  the 
sin-offering  of  the  slain  goat,  and  bearing-a way-iniquity 
of  the  scape  goat;  but  though  as  clearly  as  humanity 


214  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

could  then  receive  it,  yet  how  inadequately  can  ani- 
mal blood,  anyhow  shed,  indicate  the  depth  of  abhor- 
rence in  God  for  human  sin,  and  the  intense  pity  in 
God  for  the  human  sinner !  These  both  are  fully  set 
within  the  incarnate  Word,  in  the  fact  of  the  incarna- 
tion itself,  and  no  further  exhibition  is  about  to  add 
anything  to  the  essence  of  this  expiation ;  but  more 
vividly,  and  more  truly,  the  life  and  death  of  Christ 
may  show  this  to  men,  than  has  been,  or  ever  can  be, 
done  by  any  ceremonial  sacrifices.  Prophecy  had  also 
done  what  it  could  in  setting  an  incarnate  redemption 
in  expectancy  before  men ;  but  now  the  life  and  <Jeath 
of  Jesus  may  better  manifest  to  men  what  God  has 
already  put  into  his  incarnation  ;  and  his  actual  ex- 
perience tell  the  story  of  his  sin-hating  and  his  soul- 
loving  redemption,  better  than  any  combinations  of 
ritual-fore shado wings  and  prophetic-announcings  can 
accomplish.  Already  in  the  manger  at  Bethlehem  is 
the  essential  self-sacrifice ;  and  love  to  God  and  man, 
which  is  to  reveal  itself  more  clearly,  is  not  to  be 
any  more  really,  in  his  ministry,  or  in  Gethsemane,  or 
on  Calvary,  than  in  his  being  "  made  of  a  woman." 

By  far  the  greatest  number  of  years  in  the  life  of 
Jesus  have  little  significance  in  opening  the  hidden 
meaning  of  his  incarnation,  except  as  the  fact  of  his 
passing  through  them  testifies  to  his  humility  in  con- 
senting to  take  "  the  form  of  a  servant."  He  grew 
up  through  his  childhood,  youth,  and  into  early  man- 
hood, as  others  of  the  human  race,  and  the  manly 
mind  developed  as  the  manly  stature  was  matured. 


LIFE   AND  WORK  IN  THE  FLESH.  215 

There  were  continual  indications,  of  the  supernatural 
portent  given  in  his  miraculous  conception,  shining 
out  through  this  early  experience ;  and  maternal  in- 
terest and  solicitude  made  Mary  quick  to  note  them, 
and  "  she  hid  all  his  sayings  in  her  heart."  His  con- 
ference with  the  Sanhedrim  at  the  Temple,  in  his 
twelfth  year,  astonished  them  by  the  wisdom  of  his 
questions  and  answers ;  and  his  answer  to  the  affec- 
tionate rebuke  of  Mary,  that  his  tarrying  behind  had 
made  for  father  and  mother  hours  of  sorrowing  search 
after  him,  was  no  less  astonishing  to  his  parents  — 
"Wist  ye  -not  that  I  must  be  about  my  Father's  busi- 
ness ? "  How  surely  gleams  out  here  the  perpetual 
inner  consciousness,  even  of  his  childhood,  that  he 
was  "  the  Word  made  flesh."  Yet  during  the  first 
thirty  years  of  his  life,  Jesus  kept  his  inner  character- 
istics and  communings  of  the  human  and  divine  main- 
ly in  his  own  bosom.  He  went  back  home  with  his 
parents  from  that  talk  with  the  doctors  of  the  law  in 
the  Temple,  and  was  subject  to  them,  and  wrought 
with  his  father  at  his  daily  occupation,  and  was  known 
familiarly  as  "the  carpenter's  son."  At  thirty  years 
of  age  he  came  to  John,  at  the  Jordan,  to  be  baptized 
of  him,  and  was  thus  formally,  and  by  God's  appear- 
ing and  audible  announcement  authoritatively,  in- 
augurated into  his  official  Messiahship;  and  thence 
began  the  work  of  his  redemption-administration. 

1.  THE  WORK  OPENED  IN  A  PRIVATE  PERSONAL  CON- 
FLICT WITH  THE  FIRST  DECEIVER.  —  We  have  the  record 


216  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

in  Matt.  iv.  and  Luke  iv.,  and  in  a  short  statement  by 
Mark  i.  13.  The  significance  of  the  conflict  is,  that 
there  was  a  triumph  of  Jesus  over  the  devil  at  the 
opening  of  his  redemptive  work.  The  first  accom- 
plishment was  a  victory  over  the  flesh  and  Satan, 
evincing  his  perfect  competency  for  the  work  of  hu- 
man redemption.  The  devil  knew  what  his  own  agen- 
cy and  its  success  -had  been  in  the  fall  of  humanity, 
and  that  in  prospect  was  a  redemptive  work  for  man 
purposed  and  promised  by  God,  and  enough  had  been 
disclosed  to  make  clear  indication  that  Jesus  Christ 
was  this  designed  Redeemer.  He  had  confronted  Je- 
hovah before  as  the  Logos,  or  original  manifester  of 
the  Father,  and  had  been  expelled  from  angelic  com- 
munion, and  Jesus  had  seen  him- "fall  like  lightning 
from  heaven.7'  But  now  the  Word  was  made  flesh, 
and  accessible  to  temptation  through  sense,  and  the 
devil  promptly  seized  this  first  offered  occasion  for 
tempting  Deity.  As  Absolute  Spirit,  "  God  cannot  be 
tempted  of  evil,"  for  no  other  end  can  be  of  so  high 
an  inducement  to  action  as  that  of  satisfying  his  own 
reason,  or,  as  the  same  thing,  securing  Jiis  honor  and 
glory. 

On  the  other  hand,  Jesus  was  as  promptly  intent  to 
meet  Satan.  Immediately  after  his  baptism,  he  was 
led  by  the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness  beyond  the  Jor- 
dan for  this  very  purpose,  "to  be  tempted  of  the 
devil."  He  went,  manifestly  conscious  that  the  scene 
of  temptation  in  the  flesh  awaited  him,  and  that  it  was 


LIFE  AND   WORK  IN  THE   FLESH.  217 

a  part  of  his  redemptive  work  now  to  be  accomplished. 
The  devil's  temptation  was  as  subtle  and  artful  to- 
wards Jesus  as  it  had  been  towards  Eve.  There  was 
the  craving  hunger  from  long  fasting ;  and  the  insin- 
uation was,  that  notwithstanding  forty  days'  service 
of  God  in  fasting,  he  was  left  of  the  Father  to  his 
own  resources.  If  he  were  the  Son  of  God,  it  was 
the  proper  time  to  put  out  his  omnipotence  in  his  own 
behalf,  and  make  the  stone  to  be  bread.  Jesus  under- 
valued the  life  sustained  by  bread  to  the  life  which 
was  nourished  by  the  word  of  God.  Then  the  temp- 
tation took  the  opposite  form  of  rashly  trusting  the 
Father,  and  casting  himself  from  the  pinnacle  of  the 
Temple,  expecting  to  be  miraculously  borne  up ;  but 
Jesus  would  not  trust  the  Father,  even,  irreverently 
and  presumptuously.  Then  all  that  flesh  could  enjoy 
was  offered  to  induce  Jesus  to  forsake  the  worship  of 
the  Father  altogether,  and  do  homage  to  him  who  held 
the  world  in  his  gift ;  but  to  Jesus  nothing  was  so 
pleasing  as  the  worship  and  service  of  God  only. 

As  truly  man,  Jesus  felt  the  full  force  of  these  ap- 
peals to  sense,  and  was  as  conscious  of  stimulated  ap- 
petite and  desire  as  any  man  might  be ;  but  as  divine, 
though  temptable,  he  was  invincible.  In  his  own  ex- 
perience, also,  he  felt  the  glow  of  conflict  and  the 
flush  of  victory.  The  conscious  dignity  of  virtue 
satisfied  his  own  approbation  and  self-respect,  like 
other  righteous  men,  when  the  devil  left  him  and  an- 
gels ministered  to  him. 


218  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

2.  GENERAL  OUTLINE  OP  CHRIST'S  PUBLIC  MINISTRY. 
—  The  grand  end  was  to  present  his  claims  to  the 
Messiahship,  and  gain  their  recognition  and  obedience 
among  men.  The  Jewish  nation  were  the  covenant 
people,  and  through  them  the  preparation  had  been 
secured  for  his  coming  in  the  flesh,  and  it  was  in 
course  that  the  first  application  of  Messianic  truth 
and  work  should  be  made,  to  the  Jews,  and  as  was  ap- 
propriate, directly  and  immediately  to  the  authorized 
rulers  of  the  nation.  Jesus  Christ  gave  the  govern- 
ment in  official  sovereignty  the  first  opportunity,  as 
it  was  their  prime  obligation,  as  theocratic  magistrates, 
to  acknowledge  the  coming  of  their  long-promised 
Prince  and  Saviour.  When  the  rulers  rejected  his 
claim  with  scorn  and  enmity,  he  turned  to  the  people, 
and  directed  his  ministry  to  them,  and  through  them 
pushed  his  claims  upon  the  nation  to  own  their  cove- 
nant King  and  Redeemer.  And  when  still  the  rulers 
rejected  and  sought  to  kill  him,  notwithstanding  the 
wide  popularity  his  doctrine  and  work  gained,  he 
turned  specially  to  teach  his  disciples  personally,  and 
the  apostles  more  eminently,  to  carry  on  the  work  of 
evangelization  among  Jews  and  Gentiles  when  he 
should  have  finished  his  own  mission  and  gone  back 
to  the  Father. 

These  three  distinct  steps  in  Jesus'  ministry  ap- 
pear fully  on  a  careful  synopsis  of  the  four  evangel- 
ists. Matthew  had  in  view  more  directly  Jewish 
converts  to  Christ,  and  Mark  and  Luke,  each  in  his 
several  way,  both  Jewish  and  Gentile  converts ;  but 


LIFE  AND   WORK   IN  THE   FLESH.  219 

all  three  had  reference  to  the  bearing  of  Christ's  min- 
istry upon  Christians  and  the  Christian  church,  with- 
out any  reference  to  peculiar  Jewish  privileges  and 
obligations.  John  in  his  Gospel  had  specially  in  view 
the  claims  of  Jesus  to  the  Messiahship  everywhere, 
and  sought  to  represent  the  facts  of  his  life  and  min- 
istry as  best  to  induce  in  all  men  belief  in  his  One 
Salvation.1  In  this  way  it  was  divinely  ordered  that 
Christ's  own  intention  in  the  prosecution  of  his  work 
should  be  successively  and  distinctly  disclosed.  With 
their  end  in  view,  the  first  three  evangelists  had  no 
use  to  make  of  the  work  of  Christ,  as  intended  for  the 
rulers  and  national  authority  as  such,  and  they  all 
commence  Jesus'  public  ministry  with  the  facts  oc- 
curring after  John's  imprisonment;  but  the  evangelist 
John,  for  his  purpose,  wants  the  work  of  Christ  direct- 
ly to  the  rulers  on  his  first  announcement  of  his  Mes- 
siahship, and  hence  we  get  many  early  transactions  in 
his  ministry  the  others  have  entirely  passed  by,  as 
occurring  during  John  the  Baptist's  life  and  active 
dispensation.  So  understood,  we  must  begin  to  gather 
the  facts  of  Christ's  public  ministry  from  the  Gospel 
of  John. 

Immediately  after  the  temptation,  Jesus  returned 
from  the  wilderness  beyond,  back  to  John  at  the  Jor- 
dan, where  he  was  still  preaching  to  the  multitudes 
and  baptizing,  and  John  at  once  pointed  him  out  as 
the  Lamb  of  God  —  the  Saviour  already  come.  This 
induced  two  of  his  disciples  to  follow  Jesus,  one  of 

1  John  xx.  30,  31. 


220  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

whom  was  Andrew,  and  he  led  his  brother  Peter  to 
Christ.  Next  day  Jesus  called  Philip,  who  was  here 
at  the  Jordan  from  the  same  city,  Bethsaida,  as  An- 
drew and  Peter;  and  Philip  induces  Nathanael  to 
come,  whom  Christ  receives  as  an  Israelite  in  whom 
is  no  guile.1  With  these  five  disciples  Jesus  went 
from  the  valley  of  the  Jordan  to  Cana  of  Galilee, 
and  wrought  his  first  miracle  of  changing  water 
to  wine;  and  thence  for  a  few  days  to  Capernaum 
with  his  mother,  when  the  Passover  occurred,  and  he 
went  to  Jerusalem,  and  openly  assumed  the  authority 
of  his  Messiahship  in  cleansing  the  Temple  and  facing 
the  rulers  when  they  questioned  his  claim.  His 
teaching  and  miracles  convinced  many  at  the  Passover, 
but  the  rulers  rejected,  and  Christ  made  no  commit- 
ment of  himself  to  gather*  tliem,  though  he  knew 
them.2  Nicodemus,  a  ruler,  here  came  to  Jesus  se- 
cretly by  night,  and  Jesus  taught  him  the  nature  and 
necessity  of  the  new  birth;  and  afterwards  he,  with 
the  five  disciples,  went  out  into  the  country  of  Judea 
preaching,  and  his  disciples  baptizing  the  converts. 
John  the  Baptist  was  then  at  ^Enon,  away  from  the 
Jordan,  testifying  of  Christ,  and  rejoicing  with  no 
jealousy  at  Christ's  success,  though  Christ  was  making 
converts  faster  than  himself.3 

To  give  John's  ministry  full  success,  and  save  all 
attempted  disturbance  by  the  rulers  in  provoking 
the  envy  of  John  or  his  disciples,  Christ  left  Judea 
for  Galilee,  and  passing  through  Samaria,  he  had  his 

1  John  i.  15-51.  2  John  ii.  3  John  iii. 


LIFE   AND    WORK   IN   THE   FLESH.  221 

conversation  with  the  woman  at  the  well,  followed  by 
the  conversion  of  many  Samaritans ; a  and  then  com- 
ing to  Cana  wrought  there  a  second  miracle  by  healing 
the  nobleman's  son  sick  at  a  distance  in  Capernaum.2 

Again  from  Galilee  Jesus  returned  to  Jerusalem, 
and  set  out  his  claims  before  the  Sanhedrim  and  ruling 
sect  of  the  Pharisees  at  a  public  feast,  probably  the 
second  Passover  of  his  ministry  j  cured  the  impotent 
man  at  the  pool  of  Bethesda  on  the  Sabbath ;  and  then 
boldly  defended  his  claim,  and  sharply  rebuked  the 
Jews  for  their  unbelief  and  rejection,  and  finished  the 
part  of  his  ministry  that  had  reference  to  immedi- 
ate governmental  acknowledgment.3  He  had  referred 
to  John  Baptist's  testimony  as  a  past  transaction,4 
evincing  that  John  was  now  imprisoned  j  and  here  we 
come  to  the  point,  when -the  other  evangelists  begin 
their  account  of  the  Messiah's  work  after  his  tempta- 
tion.5 During  this  last  visit  to  Jerusalem  in  this  part 
of  his  ministry,  Jesus  seems  to  have  been  alone,  and 
the  five  disciples  to  have  gone  to  their  homes. 

From  hence  we  must  make  a  synopsis  from  all  the 
Evangelists.  On  going  to  Galilee  he  preaches  at  Naz- 
areth in  the  synagogue,  and  supernaturally  escapes 
their  malice;6  and  then  went  to  Capernaum  as  a  resi- 
dence for  some  time,  making  that  a  central  point  for 
many  circuits  in  his  Messianic  ministry.  Here  he  calls 
back  his  former  disciples,  and  adds  to  them  others, 

1  John  iv.  1-43.      2  John  iv.  43-54.      3  John  v.        4  John  v.  33-35. 
6  Matt.  iv.  12-17 ;  Mark  i.  14,  15 ;  Luke  iv.  14,  15. 
6  Luke  iv.  16-30. 


222  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

making  twelve  apostles  ;  preaches  and  works  miracles 
through  all  the  region,  and  his  open  ministry  to  the 
people  commences,  and  is  for  a  time  continued  with- 
out further  attention  to  the  national  rulers,  who  re- 
jected him  utterly,  and  would  have  killed  him.  Multi- 
tudes follow  him,  and  we  have  the  sermon  on  the 
mount ; 1  John  Baptist  sending  two  disciples  to  him 
from  his  prison ; 2  teaching,  at  another  time,  John's 
disciples  why  his  own  disciples  do  not  fast ; 3  and 
extensively  spreading  his  fame  and  influence  by 
repeated  journeys  and  miracles  through  all  Galilee, 
till  on  sending  out  his  apostles  also  to  preach  his  doc- 
trine and  work  miracles,  he  hears  of  the  death  of 
John  Baptist.4 

Jesus  has  now  very  much  finished  his  direct  work 
to  the  people,  and  has  his  highest  measure  of  public 
attention.  Many  believe  in  him  as  the  true  Messiah, 
and  many  more  wonder,  admire,  deem  him  a  great 
prophet,  but  are  not  ready  to  commit  themselves  to 
him ;  while  others  follow  him  only  from  wonder,  or 
interest ;  and  many  more,  with  the  scribes  and  rulers, 
reject,  despise,  and  hate  his  humbling  doctrines  and 
spiritual  requirements.  He  has  come  to  his  own, 
and  his  own  receiveth  him  not.  Enough  has  been 
given  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God,  and  be- 
lieve on  his  name,  to  constitute  a  seed  to  serve 
him,  and  insure  a  church  against  which  the  gates  of 
hell  shall  not  prevail ;  but  the  Jews,  as  a  nation  and 

1  Matt,  v.,  vi.,  vii.  *  Luke  vii.  19-23. 

3  Matt.  ix.  14-17.  4  Mark  vi.  14-30. 


LIFE  AND   WORK  IN   THE  FLESH.  223 

people,  prove  themselves  degenerate  from  their  cove- 
nant, and  must  be  broken  off  as  dry  branches,  fruit- 
less and  reprobate.  Henceforth  the  grand  work  of 
Jesus  is  specially  with  the  disciples  and  apostles  ;  to 
confirm  their  faith,  enlighten  their  piety,  teach  them 
the  way  of  his  suffering  death  and  their  coming  per- 
secutions, and  harden  them  to  the  burden  and  task 
they  are  to  endure  when  he  shall  be  taken  from  them. 
From  this  point  onward,  this  is  manifestly  the  increas-. 
ing  urgency  of  his  Messianic  mission.  He  withdraws 
more  from  the  public,  talks  more  plainly  and  tenderly 
with  his  disciples  ;  at  length  leaves  Galilee,  and  goes 
up  boldly  to  Judea  to  confront  his  enemies,  and  warn 
and  rebuke  them  more  sharply,  and  meet  the  sacrifi- 
cial death  appointed,  and  triumph  in  it  and  by  it. 

It  cannot  be  shown  from  any  historic  data  how  long 
John's  ministry  lasted ;  how  long  he  was  in  prison 
before  his  execution ;  nor  how  long  Jesus'  public 
ministration  continued,  and  when  his  crucifixion  oc- 
curred. He  was  baptized  by  John  at  about  thirty 
years  of  age,  the  twenty-sixth  year  of  the  common 
Christian  era.  There  were,  at  least,  three  intervening 
passovers,  and  there  will  have  been  four  if  the  "  feast " 
of  John 1  was  the  paschal  feast,  and  there  may  have 
been  more  which  Jesus  did  not  attend,  and  are  not 
mentioned,  while  he  was  in  Galilee ;  but  several  facts 
restrict  the  furthest  computation  to  the  passover  of 
A.  D.  33  for  his  death,  and  while  nearly  all  years 
between  A.  D.  33  and  28  have  their  advocates,  the 

1  John  v.  1. 


224  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

longest  period  is  more  probable  than  the  shortest ;  yet 
among  recent  writers  on  the  topic,  the  most  names 
probably  will  be  found  meeting  in  A.  D.  30  for  the 
time  of  our  Lord's  crucifixion. 

3.  THE  COMPREHENSIVE  IMPORT  OF  HIS  TEACHING.  — 
While  the  first  grand  requisition  for  all  was  the  hearty 
reception  of  himself  as  the  only  Saviour,  and  that  the 
soul  be  wholly  trusted  to  his  grace,  the  manifestation 
and  proof  of  this  was  to  be  found  in  complete  new- 
ness of  life  and  godly  conversation.  The  controlling 
principle"  was  the  subjection  of  sense  in  all  cases  to 
the  rule  of  the  spirit.  The  old  disposition  of  sense- 
gratification  and  selfish  indulgence  must  be  utterly 
renounced,  and  the  purity  and  integrity  of  the  spirit 
be  the  steadfast  purpose.  This  is  the  burden  of  long 
discourses,  like  the  sermon  on  the  mount ;  of  striking- 
parables,  like  the  prodigal  son,  the  sower,  and  the 
rich  man  and  Lazarus ;.  and  is  condensed  in  innumera- 
ble terse  expressions  and  stringent  requisitions.  ,"  A. 
man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the 
things  he  possesseth,"  for  these  are  not  his  when 
God  taketh  away  the  soul.1  "  Life  is  more  than  meat, 
and  the  body  than  raiment."  "  Seek  first  the  king- 
dom of  God  and  his  righteousness."2  "Fear,  not 
them  which  kill  the  body,  but  are  not  able  to  kill 
the  soul ;  but  rather  fear  him  which  is  able  to  destroy 
both  soul  and  body  in  hell."  3  "  What  shall  it  profit  a 
man  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own 

1  Luke  xii.  13-21.          2  Matt.  vi.  24-34.          3  Matt.  x.  28. 


LIFE  AND   WORK  IN  THE   FLESH.  225 

soul  ?  and  what  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his 
soul?"1  and  even  more  intensely,  "If  thy  foot  or 
hand  offend  thee,  cut  them  off;  if  thine  eye  offend 
thee,  pluck  it  out;  better  enter  into  life  halt  or 
maimed,  or  with  one  eye,  rather  than  that  the  whole 
body  be  cast  into  hell,  where  the  worm  dieth  not,  and 
the  fire  is  not  quenched."  2 

4.  JESUS'  LIFE  AND  EXAMPLE  WERE  LIKE  HIS  TEACH- 
ING. —  "  He  came  down  from  heaven  not  to  do  his  own 
will,  but  the  will  of  him  that  sent  him ; "  3  and  while 
he  went  about  doing  good,4  "  ministering  to  others, 
not  others  to  him/'6  and  submitted  to  the  devil's 
temptation  as  evincing  that  he  is  the  more  ready  to 
succor  us  in  our  temptations  ;  and  when  his  hour 
was  come,  he  steadfastly  set  his  face  to  Jerusalem 
as  "  straitened  till  his  baptism  was  accomplished ; " 
there  are  yet  two  special  instances  of  the  most  strik- 
ing magnanimity  in  holding  his  flesh  to  the  endur- 
ance of  what  the  spirit  claimed  in  finishing  his  work 
for  us. 

The  first  is,  when  his  hour  has  come-,6  and  he  says, 
"  Now  is  my  soul  troubled,  and  what  shall  I  say  ?  Fa- 
ther, save  me  from  this  hour ;  but  for  this  cause  came 
I  unto  this  hour.  Father,  glorify  thy  name."  He  was 
here  in  full  view  of  the  terrible  experiences  of  the 
coming  three  days,  and  his  sentient  soul  was  appalled 
and  amazed.  What  shall  I  say  ?  Yield  to  the  shrink- 

1  Mark  viii.  34-38.  8  Mark  ix.  43-50.         3  John  vi.  38. 

4  MatL.iv.  23,  ix.  35.       5  Matt.  xx.  28.  6  John  xii.  27,  28. 

15 


226  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

ing  sense,  and  cry,  Save  me  from  this  hour  ?  But 
that  will  be  to  desert  the  very  end  of  my  mission.  I 
came  from  heaven  to  meet  this  very  crisis.  The  flesh 
must  be  held  to  its  endurance,  and  the  fixed  resolve 
comes,  "  Father,  glorify  thy  name  ;  "  and  the  response, 
as  in  thunder,  was,  "  I  have  both  glorified  it,  and  will 
glorify  it  again." 

The  second  case  is  the  agony  in  Gethsemane.1 
The  tender  scene  of  the  last  passover  was  ended,  the 
sacramental  supper  had  been  instituted,  and  the  last 
parting  hymn  sung ;  and  the  Master  and  disciples  go 
over  the  brook  Kedron  to  the  oft-visited  garden. 
He  knew  the  malice  of  Jewish  rulers,  the  treach- 
ery of  Judas,  the  timid  love  and  faith  of  his  disci- 
ples, and  that  he  must  meet  and  bear  his  burdens 
alone ;  and  his  sensitive  nature  was  overwhelmingly 
distressed  and  dismayed.  The  whole  weight  of  in- 
carnate humiliation  was  concentrated  in  that  hour  of 
agony,  and  he  went  away  alone  to  give  vent  to  his 
distressed  soul  in  prayer,  and  the  sweat,  as  drops  of 
blood,  fell  from  his  body  on  the  ground.  "  Father,  all 
things  are  possible  to  thee ;  take  away  this  cup  from 
me."  So  sorrowful,  even  unto  death;  was  he,  that  he 
repeats  the  prayer  three  times,  and  'then  the.  angel 
comes  from  heaven  to  strengthen  him.  The  bitter  cup 
he  was  then  drinking  was  not  that  of  the  anticipated 
crucifixion,  but  a  present  inward  grief  and  anguish. 
Of  this  very  scene  it  is  said  hi  Hebrews,2  "  who,  in 
the  days  of  his  flesh,  when  he  had  offered  up  prayers 

1  Mark  xiv.    Luke  xxii.  »  Heb.  v.  7. 


LIFE  AND   WORK  IN  THE   FLESH.         .          227 

and  supplications,  with  strong  crying  and  tears,  unto 
him  that  was  able  to  save  him  from  death,  and  was 
heard  in  that  which  he  feared."  The  agony  he 
feared  was  more  than  he  could  sustain  with  life,  and 
yet  the  unflinching  spirit  says,  "  0,  my  Father,  if 
this  cup  may  not  pass  from  me  except  I  drink  it,  thy 
will  be  done." 

5.    JESUS  ROSE  FROM.  THE   SEPULCHRE   ON  THE   THIRD 

DAY.  -r-  The  preceding  agony,  the  dying  on  the  cross, 
the  pale,  still  corpse  in  Joseph's  tomb,  were  the  last 
manifestations  of  mediatorial  suffering  and  reproach. 
Henceforth  he  appears  a  conqueror  in  triumph.  And 
the  manifestations  of  victory  are  as  necessary  to  re- 
demption as  the  bowing  of  his  head  in  death.  He 
must  be  a  reigning  as  well  as  an  atoning  Mediator. 
His  resurrection  is  as  important  in  the  ends  of  the 
incarnation  as  his  flowing  blood.  As  humanity  per- 
vaded by  deity,  he  could  both  lay  down  his  life  and 
take  it  again,  and  he  is  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God 
with  power  according  to  the  Spirit  of  holiness,  by  the 
resurrection  from  the  dead.1 

The  evidence  of  his  resurrection  is  as  convincing 
as  that  of  his  death;  and  after  his  resurrection  he 
further  taught  his  disciples  about  his  coming  king- 
dom, commissioned  the  apostles  to  their  work,  prom- 
ised the  Spirit  for  which  they  were  to  wait  at  Jeru- 
salem, and  then  led  them  to  Bethany  ;  and  while  his 
hands  were  lifted  in  blessing,  he  was  carried  up,  and 

1  Rom.  i.  4. 


228        .  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

a  cloud  intercepted  all  further  sight.  Two  heavenly 
messengers  told  the  gazing  people,  "  This  same  Jesus 
shall  come  in  like  manner  as  ye  have  seen  him  go  into 
heaven." l 

This  second  coming  is  more  fully  spoken  of  in  the 
Epistles  and  Revelation,  as  the  closing  up  of  the 
mediatorial  work.  Meantime  he  is  at  the  right  hand 
of  power,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  has  authoritative  dis- 
pensation in  the  church  on  earth.2 


SECTION  III. 

THE  DOCTRINE  OF  REDEMPTION  IN  THE  DIVINE  IN- 
CARNATION. 

REDEMPTION  from  sin  includes  deliverance  from  pe- 
nal consequences,  and  restoration  to  divine  favor. 
How  "  the  Word  made  flesh "  avails  to  this  can  be 
made  intelligible  only  in  view  of  the  relation  in  which 
the  sinner  stands  to  God.  On  the  creation  of  man  as 
sense  and  spirit,  it  behooved  God  at  once  to  put  him 
under  appropriate  conditions  for  trial,  and  such  form 
of  trial  we  have  already  sufficiently  considered.  The 
test  given  was  a  law  imposed,  and  the  wilful  departure 
from  the  test  was  an  overt  violation  of  law,  and  put 

1  Luke  xxiv. ;  Acts  i. 

1  Luke  xxiv.  49;  John  xiv.  16,  17,  xvi.  7-14;  Acts  i.  8,  ii.  2-4. 


DOCTRINES  OF  REDEMPTION.  229 

the  authority  and  honor  of  God  directly  in  the  way 
of  the  man's  peaceful  communion  with  God.  As  Law- 
giver and  law-violator,  there  was  conflict  between 
them.  And  in  this  light  we  attain  the  true  meaning 
of  the  strong  phraseology,  which  divine  revelation 
uses  to  set  forth  the  disagreement  between  God  and 
fallen  man.  On  the  part  of  man,  there  is  represented 
to  be  hatred,  scorn,  enmity ;  and  on  the  part  of  God, 
wrath,  fury,  vengeance.  And  yet  on  man's  part  the 
hatred  is  from  forbidden  gratification,  and  not  because 
there  is  anything  in  God  obnoxious  to  the  sinner's 
reason  and  conscience  j  and  on  the  part  of  God,  the 
wrath  is  the  deep  disapprobation  of  sin,  and  not  any 
exclusion  of  tender  compassion  for  the  sinner.  The 
sinner  hates  while  he  still  justifies  God,  and  God  pun- 
ishes while  he  still  pities  the  guilty. 

Standing  face  to  face  with  such  feeling,  as  God  and 
man  did  after  the  fall,  all  peaceful  communion  was  im- 
possible. If  the  sinner  continue  a  rebellion  which  he 
cannot  justify,  as  left  to  himself  he  will,  the  compas- 
sion of  God  cannot  be  allowed  to  repress  his  vindica- 
tion of  authority  by  applying  penalty.  Even  while 
he  pities,  he  must  execute  the  legal  sanction.  Both 
self-reproach  and  open  dishonor  must  come  from  a 
compassion  that  overrides  reason.  And  so  also,  if 
God,  self-moved,  arrange  a  way  for  remission,  he  must 
both  uphold  his  own  honor  and  require  returning 
loyalty  from  the  pardoned.  A  sinner  could  not  be  at 
peace  with  himself,  nor  have  respect  for  God,  if  his 
pardon  was  against  his  reason.  If  such  provision  be 


230  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

wholly  impracticable,  then  must  all  reconciliation  be 
utterly  impossible  ;  and  very  probable  is  it,  that  to  all 
finite  spirits  such  a  way  of  deliverance  must  have 
seemed  impossible,  and  thus  the  sinner's  condemna- 
tion irremediable.  Only  when  God  has  opened  the 
way  will  finite  reason  come  to  comprehend  it.  And 
this  way  is  opened  through  the  incarnation,  life,  and 
death  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  known  as  Re- 
demption in  that  it  is  a  price  equivalent  to  the  penal 
claim,  and  opens  deliverance  from  bondage  ; l  yet  the 
captive  must  come  out  cordially  confiding,  or  the  re- 
deeming price  is  not  available  for  him.  It  is  also 
known  as  Atonement,  in  that  it  covers  guilt,  and  ap- 
peases offence,2  and  thus  opens  reconciliation ;  yet 
the  sinner  must  penitently  take  the  atoning  offering, 
or  the  expiation  cannot  cover  his  iniquities.3 

Redemption  and  Atonement,  thus,  both  mean  the 
same  thing,  and  differ  only  as  the  direction  of  view 
changes  the  aspect.  How,  then,  through  "  the  Word 
made  flesh/'  is  the  price  of  redemption  paid,  or  the 
expiation  of  an  atonement  effected  ? 

1.  NOT  IN  ANY  WAY  OF  LEGAL  JUSTICE.  —  The  sinner 
is  condemned  by  law,  and  cannot  in  any  way  be  saved 
by  law.  He  can  never  stand  reconciled  to  God,  in 
either  his  own  or  others'  estimation,  on  any  legal  foot- 
ing. No  one  can  do  anything  that  can  give  peace 
between  the  sinner  and  God  in  the  eye  of  law.  Legal 
justice  must  ever  stand  in  this  attitude  to  man, — 

1  1  Peter  i.  18,  19.          a  Rom.  v.  10,  11.          3  Heb.  x.  14. 


DOCTRINES   OF   REDEMPTION.  231 

"  Give  to  law  sinless  obedience,  and  I  approve  ;  give 
sinful  disobedience,  and  I  condemn,"  —  and  once  hav- 
ing fallen  in  sin,  there  is  in  the  case  itself  guilt  which 
justice  can  neVer  cleanse.  Sinless  obedience  in  all  else 
is  but  just  what  should  have  been,  and  this  sinful  dis- 
obedience is  just  what  should  not  have  been ;  and  the  s 
former  can  make  no  just  amends  for  the  latter.  Any 
legal  substitution  is  in  the  case  itself  impossible.  The 
obedience  should  have  been  the  sinner's,  and  not  that 
of  another ;  and  for  the  disobedience  of  the  sinner,  the 
just  punishment  must  be  his,  and  not  that  of  any  other 
for  him.  Justice  can  never  permit  the  innocent  legal- 
ly to  be  punished  for  the  guilty.  Even  if  willing,  the 
suffering  of  another  cannot  be  vicarious  penalty ;  for 
penal  suffering  must  have  conscious  demerit,  and 
should  the  innocent  suffer  with  full  consent,  justice 
could  not  take  that  as  penal,  and  legally  absolve  the 
guilty.  In  the  sight  of  reason,  Absolute  or  finite,  that 
would  not  be  justice.  Such  remission,  if  made,  could 
not  make  peace  between  man  and  God  legally,  for 
the  reason  of  both  man  and  God  must  see  a  fallacy  tf 
in  it. 

It  may,  however,  here  be  objected,  that  Scripture 
represents  the  sinless  Saviour  as  suffering  for  the 
guilty.  Prophetically  it  was  said,  "  He  was  wounded 
for  our  transgressions  ;  he  was  bruised  for  our  iniqui- 
ties ;  the  chastisement  of  our  peace  was  upon  him,  and 
with  his  stripes  we  are  healed." 1  And  in  the  New 
Testament  it  is  said,  " He  died  for  our  sins."2  Christ 

1  Isa.  liii.  5.  2  1  Cor.  xv.  3. 


232  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

"  hath  once  suffered  for  us,  the  just  for  the  unjust,  that 
he  might  bring  us  to  God."  1  To  this  it  need  only  be 
here  answered,  that  Jesus'  suffering  and  death  avail 
for  our  deliverance  as  an  equivalent  substitute  for 
penalty,  and  are  therefore  "  for  us,"  but  not  that  these 
sufferings  were  legal  penalty.  They  could  not  so  be 
unless  he  were  guilty,  for  penalty  can  be  applied  only 
to  guilt. 

And  then  to  this  it  may  again  be  objected,  that  the 
Scripture  representation  is,  Christ  does  take  our  sins. 
"  The  Lord  hath  laid  upon  him  the  iniquities  of  us 
all."  "  He  shall  bear  our  iniquities."  2  "  Who  his  own 
self  bare  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree."3 
"  He  hath  made  him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no 
sin."  4  To  which  again,  here,  it  need  only  be  replied, 
that  Jesus  took  our  sins  in  no  such  sense  that  he  could 
suffer  their  legal  penalty.  This  must  involve  penal 
demerit,  and  could  not  be  transferred  from  us  to  him. 
Nor  could  this  be  putatively  reckoned  and  voluntarily 
received,  for  no  imputation  of  our  sin  could  carry 
over  their  penal  demerit.  He  was  "  made  sin  for  us  " 
in  some  other  sense  than  made  penally  guilty  for  us. 
The  reference  in  all  these  scriptures  is  to  Jewish  sin- 
offerings,  and  must  be  interpreted  by  them.  The 
scape-goat  bore  away  the  sins  of  Israel  in  another  ac- 
ceptation than  being  made  penally  guilty,  and  legally 
suffering.  If  there  be  no  alternative  to  the  sinner 
than  a  standing  on  some  foot  of  justice,  there  can  be 

1  1  Peter  iii.  18.  2  Isa.  liii.  6  and  12. 

3  1  Peter  ii.  24.  4  2  Cor.  v.  21. 


DOCTRINES   OF   REDEMPTION.  233 

no  redemption  for  him ;  for  neither  God  nor  man  can 
see  any  justice  in  suffering  innocence. 

2.  IN  THE  INCARNATION  PENAL  JUSTICE  TAKES  AN 
EQUIVALENT.  —  When  man  fell,  penalty  was  due  for 
sustaining  the  law  in  the  honor  of  the  lawgiver,  and 
not  because  the  penal  infliction  was  what  the  law- 
giver wanted.  He  wanted  obedience ;  and  that  fail- 
ing, no  penal  infliction  could  repair  the  loss.  And 
when  penalty  is  executed,  it  is  not  that  the  suffering 
of  the  punished  may  deter  others  from  disobedience 
through  fear,  for  such  obedience  could  not  please  the 
lawgiver.  The  end  of  penalty,  threatened  or  ex- 
ecuted, is  to  disclose  the  full  will  and  heart  of  the 
lawgiver,  letting  the  subject  know  just  how  much 
he  wishes  his  law  to  be  fulfilled.  There  is  no  justice 
in  a  penal  sanction  which  looks  to  any  other  end. 
The  penalty,  in  this  view,  presses  towards  obedience, 
not  through  fear,  but  from  reverent  regard  to  the  will 
of  the  lawgiver ;  and  no  obedience  rendered  from  any 
other  motive  can  consist  with  concordant  communion 
between  the  subject  and  the  heart-searching  sover-  ^ 
eign.  When,  then,  precept  is  promulgated,  and  dis- 
closes what  the  lawgiver  wishes,  penal  sanction  must 
also  be  appended  to  disclose  how  much  he  wishes  the  \/ 
precept  to  be  obeyed.  Precept  without  sanction  is 
not  law,  but  mere  counsel;  and  the  penalty  which 
gives  stringency  to  law  is  solely  in  the  end  of  reveal- 
ing the  strength  of  the  lawgiver's  will,  that  obedience 
shall  follow.  The  will  of  God  thus  disclosed  is  not,  of 


234          REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

course,  merely  arbitrary,  for  it  is  the  will  of  Absolute 
Reason ;  and  when  there  is  disobedience,  this  neces- 
sarily awakens  in  his  heart  disapprobation  of  the  sin 
and  compassion  for  the  sinner.  Absolute  Reason  can- 
not contemplate  the  subject  as  sinning  without  this 
double  feeling  of  displeasure  and  compassion,  for  this 
only  is  reasonable.  The  strong  term,  wrath,  given  to 
divine  disapprobation,  is  always  tempered  with  pity ; 
not  the  j-age  of  the  tiger,  but  "  the  wrath-  of  the 
lamb."  Penalty  is  ever  threatened  and  executed  by 
God  with  this  spirit.  Even  judgment  without  mercy 
is  by  no  means  punishment  without  pity,  but  punish- 
ment in  which  compassion  can  put  no  reasonable  miti- 
gation. It  becomes  savage  cruelty  when  the  law- 
giver has  not  reasonable  sadness  for  sin. 

On  the  ground  of  justice,  then,  when  obedience  is 
rendered,  there  is  manifested  God's  approbation,  but 
there  is  no  opportunity  given  for  manifested  compas- 
sion; and  when  disobedience  is  rendered,  there  is 
manifested  God's  disapprobation  in  applied  penalty, 
but  there  is  no  opening  for  manifesting  the  pity  which 
God  feels.  Justice  is  adequate  manifestation  of  dis- 
pleasure, and  that  is  in  the  penalty  inflicted,  and  noth- 
ing else ;  and  this  must  be,  and  in  it  pity  may  not 
make  any  change  nor  abatement.  But  in  the  incar- 
nation and  death  of  the  Lord  Jesus  the  ground  of  jus- 
tice is  totally  given  up,  and  wholly  another  mode  of 
manifesting  displeasure  for  sin  is  introduced.  It  is 
not  Justice  at  all,  but  Grace,  its  directly  opposite. 


DOCTRINES  OF  REDEMPTION.          235 

There  is  no  room  here  for  legal  penalty  to  be  exacted ; 
that  is  excluded,  and  free  favor  is  introduced. 

But  justice  is  not  discarded  and  recklessly  over- 
ridden ;  the  whole  provision  has  been  made  in  such  a 
way  of  wisdom  that  justice  becomes  fully  satisfied  in 
an  equivalent  substitute.  God's  wish  for  obedience, 
and  displeasure  for  disobedience,  are  as  strongly  set 
forth  as  they  could  be  by  inflicted  penalty.  Jesus' 
interposition  is  not  justice  j  it  is  a  free  gift,  and  yet 
as  good  for  firm  government  as  legal  penalty.  It  is 
adequate  to  sustain  law  as  well  as  justice,  and  it  may 
be  substituted  for  just  penalty,  and  authority  suffer 
no  disrespect  in  the  view  of  sovereign  or  subject.  It 
is  wholly  another  way  of  honoring  law,  but  it  puts  as 
much  honor  on  it  as  the  punishment  of  the  sin  could. 
God  sets  this  before  the  universe,  and  pardons  the 
penitent  sinner,  and  puts  the  honor  and  stability  of 
his  government  upon  it  to  stand  the  issue.  When  he 
lets  a  sinner  go  free  for  Christ's  sake,  he  knows  that 
neither  man  nor  devil  can  disparage  his  government 
on  that  account,  and  stand  justified  in  their  own  sight. 
That  government  is  as  venerable  as  if  the  full  penalty 
had  been  exacted,  and  with  this  immense  advantage 
to  God  and  man,  that  it  has  given  occasion  for  full 
scope  to  compassion.  It  is  itself  the  offspring  of 
God's  compassion,  and  opens  the  way  for  his  mercy  to 
save  every  penitent  and  believing  sinner. 

3.  THE  WORD  MADE  FLESH  HAS  EVEN  MAGNIFIED 
THE  LAW.  —  In  every  view  of  governmental  respect 


236  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

and  honor  there  comes  out  a  glory  in  the  incarnation, 
as  reflecting  upon  the  majesty  of  law,  which  is  bright- 
er in  revealing  how  reverential  it's  authority  is,  than 
any  light  which  can  be  made  to  shine  from  penal  jus- 
tice. It  was  foretold  that  "  the  Lord  was  well  pleased 
for  his  righteousness'  sake ;  he  will  magnify  the  law, 
and  make  it  honorable." l  What  has  herein  been  done 
has  made  God's  regard  for  his  law  more  manifest,  and 
added  new  honor  to  it.  It  appeals  to  the  reason,  and 
takes  hold  on  conscience  stronger  than  ever.  The 
essence  of  what  is  given  in  the  incarnation  is  self- 
sacrifice  on  the  part  of  God  himself.  Nothing  of  this 
appears  in  giving  law,  nor  in  executing  law.  God's 
abhorrence  of  sin  is  marked  in  its  punishment,  but 
the  suffering  falls  upon  the  guilty  ;  while  in  "  the 
Word  made  flesh,"  the  sacrifice  is  on  the  part  of  God. 
Most  affectingly  it  is  here  shown  that  God's  pity  for 
the  lost  has  induced  him  to  severe  self-denial  for  man's 
sake.  In  the  person  of  the  Word,  Deity  has  humbled 
himself  to  take  on  humanity,  and  in  the  body  of  Jesus 
to  be  born  of  woman.  No  so  great  self-sacrifice  can  in 
anything  else  be  conceived.  The  glory  of  the  God- 
head is  relinquished  for  ministering  service  in  a  body 
like  the  sinner's.  And  while  the  essence  of  divine 
condescension  is  in  this  taking  on  "  the  likeness  of 
sinful  flesh  "  in  the  sight  of  the  universe,  it  is  made 
to  stand  out  in  its  most  expressive  forms.  The  as- 
sumed humanity  begins  life  in  a  manger,  opens  into 
manhood  in  day-labor  and  poverty,  and  in  public  min- 

J  Jsa.  xlii.  21. 


DOCTRINES   OF   REDEMPTION.  237 

istration  meets  perpetual  contradiction,  reproach,  and 
persecution,  and  terminates  this  suffering  experience 
through  the  inflicted  torture  and  death  of  the  cross. 

Animal  sacrifice  was  instituted  to  foreshadow  the 
sacrifice  of  the  Lamb  of  God.  But  in  the  merely  ani- 
mal death,  though  strikingly  significant,  yet  obviously 
how  inadequate !  If  we  might  elevate  the  brute- 
sacrifice  by  putting  into  it  human  feeling  and  will,  we 
should  at  once  find  greatly  intensified  expression. 
Take  a  lamb  slain  on  a  Jewish  altar,  and  as  the  sacri- 
ficial knife  enters  and  opens  the  vein,  let  there  come 
the  recognition  that  the  soul  of  a  dear  human  friend 
is  incarnated  in  that  animal  body ;  suffering  volunta- 
rily all  this  cruel  sacrifice  for  you  ;  looking  out,  in  love 
and  forgiveness,  for  some  remembered  offence,  from 
that  meek,  melting  eye,  as  it  is  fading  away  from  con- 
sciousness in  the  dying  struggle,  and  telling  to  your 
spirit  as  plainly  as  the  speaking  voice  could  say  to 
your  ear,  "  This  /  do ;  this  I  willingly  endure  for  your 
sake;"  and  in  that  human  incarnation  what  new 
meaning  immediately  is  seen  in  that  flowing  blood ! 
Could  you  bend  over  such  an  applied  sacrifice  with- 
out emotion  too  deep  for  expression?  But  we  go 
infinitely  higher  when  we  stand  by  the  cross  on  Cal- 
vary. The  true  Deity  is  in  that  thirsty,  pale,  pierced, 
and  bleeding  man  !  He  is  there  on  your  account ! 
The  Eternal  Word  made  flesh  is  expressing  the  feel- 
ing of  God's  inmost  heart  in  every  groan  and  patient 
forgiving  look  of  the  Crucified,  and  telling  how  he 
pities  your  guilty  state,  while  he  dies  to  show  how 


238  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

holy  he  deems  that  law  to  be  which  you  have  broken. 
He  is  suffering, "  the  just  for  the  unjust,  that  he  may 
bring  you  to  God."  "  While  we  were  enemies. Christ 
died  for  us."  What  other  possible  scene  can  show  so 
strongly  how  God  wishes  his  law  revered,  and  at  the 
same  time  can  say ,  so  well  how  much  he  wants  the 
sinner  saved  ? 

Could  all  penal  infliction  enforce  law  so  much  as  the 
death  of  the  Son  of  God  to  redeem  man  from  condem- 
nation? To  live  in  sin  in  the  view  of  Calvary  is 
more  incorrigible  in  its  rebellion  than  to  sin  on  under 
the  threatenings  of  the  coming  weeping  and  wailings 
of  the  lost.  If  the  penalty  of  law  be  remitted  to  the 
guilty  for  the  Saviour's  sake,  it  has  had  its  full  equiv- 
alent in  the  Saviour's  sufferings. 

4.  THE  INCARNATION  HAS  ITS  EQUIVALENT  FOR  PIETY 
AS  WELL  AS  PENALTY.  —  Penalty  does  not  restore  the 
end  of  the  law  when  broken,  as  if  disobedience  and 
legal  penalty  were  as  satisfactory  to  the  lawgiver  as 
obedience  and  reward.  Penalty  is  a  mean,  not  an 
end ;  and  its'  expediency  is  in  upholding  governmental 
honor  and  authority  where  the  end  of  government 
has  been  subverted.  The  ultimate  end  of  law  is  the 
loyalty  of  the  subject,  which  in  God's  law  is  piety,  as 
this  is  what  God  wishes ;  and  there  can  be  no  reason 
in  the  case  why  there  should  be  law,  as  expressive  of 
God's  will,  but  in  order  that  his  will  may  be  done  ; 
and  the  doing  of  God's  will  from  regard  to  his  honor 
and  authority  is  piety.  When  there  is,  then,  disobe- 


DOCTRINES   OF   REDEMPTION.  239 

dience  to  law,  which  is  impiety  subverting  the  end 
of  law,  an  equivalent  for  penalty  cannot  restore  the 
end  of  law  for  that  disobedience.  Penalty  itself  can- 
not satisfy  law ;  no  more  can  an  equivalent  substitute 
for  penalty  satisfy  law ;  for  the  sake  of  the  substitute 
God  may  remit  penalty,  but  this  will  not  restore  the 
lost  end  of  law.  There  must  be  an  equivalent 
for  obedience  to  the  precept,  which  God  wanted  and 
the  sinning  subject  did  not  give ;  and  this,  when 
clearly  apprehended,  will  be  seen  to  be  a  righteous- 
ness which  God  may  accept,  in  the  place  of  the 
righteousness  which  the  sinner  should  have  rendered, 
and  which,  when  applied,  will  satisfy  the  end  of  law. 

This  is  the  very  point  held  in  view  by  the  apostle 
to  the  Romans : l  "  For  they,  being  ignorant  of  God's 
righteousness,  and  going  about  to  establish  their  own 
righteousness,  have  not  submitted  themselves  to  the 
righteousness  of  God.  For  Christ  is  the  end  of  the 
law  for  righteousness  to  every  one  that  believeth." 
The  Jew's  "  own  righteousness  "  was  his  attempted 
moral  or  ritual  obedience ;  and  "  God's  righteous- 
ness "  was  what  he  had  established  and-  substituted 
in  the  place  of  the  righteousness  the  sinner  should 
have  rendered.  God's  righteousness  is  found  in 
Christ,  who  has  attained  the  end  of  the  law  for  the 
sinner. 

And  specifically  how  Christ  has  done  this,  we  have 
in  the  following  scriptures.  Prophetically  David  an- 
nounced it  when  he  presents  the  coming  Messiah  as 

1  Rom.  x.  3,  4. 


240  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

saying,  "  Burnt-offering  and  sin-offering  hast  thou  not 
required.  Then  said  I,  Lo,  I  come  ;  in  the  volume  of 
the  book  it  is  written  of  me,  I  delight  to  do  thy  will, 
0  my  God  ;  yea,  thy  law  is  within  my  heart."  !  This 
is  more  fully  particularized  by  the  apostle  in  saying 
of  Christ,  that  "  being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  he 
humbled  himself,  and  became  obedient  unto  death, 
even  the  death  of  the  cross."  2  And  again,  "  Though 
he  were  a  Son,  yet  learned  he  obedience  by  the 
things  which  he  suffered,  and  being  made  perfect,  he 
became  the  author  of  eternal  salvation  unto  all  them 
that  obey  him."  3 

Jesus'  "  perfection  through  suffering,"  includes  the 
obedience  in  all  things  for  the  fulfilling  of  the  media- 
torial work,  viz.,  his  being  made  under  law ;  his  trav- 
ail of  soul  in  making  an  offering  for  sin ;  his  finishing 
the  work  God  gave  to  him  to  do.  Not  here  looking 
to  suffering  as  substitute  for  penalty,  but  to  obedi- 
ence in  the  face  of  such  suffering  as  substitute  for 
piety.  There  is  here  loyalty  which  does  not  shrink 
from  taking  a  human  body,  and  maintains  steadfast 
obedience  through  life,  under  the  temptations  of  the 
devil,  the  agony  in  the  garden,  and  the  torture  on  the 
cross.  It  is  such  unflinching  loyalty  as  pleases  God, 
and  manifests  how  he  loves  obedience  to  his  will,  and 
which  in  no  other  manner  could  be  so  affectingly  re- 
vealed. If  all  sinners  had  been  perpetually  devoted 
saints,  and  God  had  testified  his  love  to  it  in  legal 
reward,  this  could  not  have  disclosed  how  much  his 

1  Psalm  xl.  6-8.  8  Phil.  ii.  8.  3  Heb.  v.  8,  9. 


DOCTRINES  OF   REDEMPTION.  241 

heart  is  set  on  having  obedience  to  his  will  so  strik- 
ingly as  in  this  perfect  suffering-obedience  of  the  Son 
of  God.  It  is  God's  expressed  love  to  pious  loyalty, 
and  in  this  a  righteousness  that  is  the  end  of  the  law, 
and  which  no  amount  of  human  obedience  can  equal. 
There  is  here  "  wrought  out  and  brought  in  everlast- 
ing righteousness,"  and  which  can  satisfy  the  end  of 
the  precept  as  truly  as  Jesus'  suffering  can  satisfy  the 
end  of  penalty.  But  the  satisfying  obedience  is  not 
the  legal  righteousness,  any  more  than  the  satisfying 
suffering  is  t{ie  legal  penalty.  The  law  demanded 
the  subject's  righteousness  or  the  sinner's  death,  and 
here  we  have  Jesus'  righteousness  and  Jesus'  death. 
What  Jesus  gave  was  not  what  was  legally  due,  but 
it  was  more  than  an  equivalent  for  legal  piety  and 
legal  penalty.  And  so  "  what  the  law  could  not  do, 
God's  Son,  in  the  likeness  of  --inful  flesh,  has  done," 
that  the  righteousness  of  the  law  might  be  fulfilled 
in  us,  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the 
spirit." ! 

5.  HERE  is  OPENED  THE  NEW  PRINCIPLE  OF  OBEDIENCE 
FROM  GRATEFUL  LOVE.  —  All  rational  creatures  have 
occasion  for  gratitude.  Their  being  is  of  God's  favor, 
and  his  bounty  supplies  many  things  for  their  welfare 
which  they  could  not  claim.  It  is  incumbent  upon 
them  that  they  be  thankful.  But  they  do  not  see  in 
their  favors  any  self-sacrifice  on  the  part  of  God.  All 
his  bounty  has  flowed  free  to  them  at  no  expense  to 

1  Rom.  viii.  3,  4. 

16 


242  EEDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

him.  Life,  and  rational  being,  and  righteous  govern- 
ment, and  providential  bounty,  are  given  as  good  be- 
yond all  desert ;  but  God  has  not  been  impoverished, 
nor  at  all  exhausted  in  their  supplies.  Their  grati- 
tude is  due,  but  the  full  gratitude  is  an  equitable 
return ;  and  with  this,  justice  between  giver  and  re- 
ceiver is  equalled.  There  is  no  opening  to  a  per- 
petually incumbent  grateful  love,  which  is  beyond  all 
paying. 

But  in  the  redemption  provided  in  "  the  Word  made 
flesh,"  there  is  a  new  claim  opened,  wfyich  the  moral 
world  could  never  before  recognize.  The  Deity  has 
voluntarily  made  himself  empty  of  good  for  man's 
sake.  He  has  purchased  favor  for  his  creatures  at 
his  own  expense.  He  has  laid  by  his  glory,  and  hum- 
bled himself  to  servitude,  that  he  might  thereby 
minister  to  his  creatures'  welfare  what  could  never 
reach  them  but  through  his  self-denial.  "  Christ 
pleased  not  himself;7'  he  subjected  himself  to  re- 
proach from  those  who  had  reproached  the  Father.1 
"  Who,  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  him,  endured 
the  cross,  despising  the  shame." 2  A  human  suscepti- 
bility is  here  touched,  which  otherwise  man  could  not 
have  been  made  conscious  was  within  him.  Nowhere 
else  does  he  see  his  Maker  "  put  to  grief"  for  him,  and 
this  while  he  is  an  enemy.  The  Deity  has  manifested 
self-sacrifice  that  the  sinner  may  be  benefited,  and 
out  of  this  the  "  new  commandment,"  for  a  new  form 
of  love,  has  found  its  occasion  to  be  promulgated.3 

*  Eom.  xv.  3.  *  Heb.  xii.  2.  3  1  John  ii.  8. 


DOCTRINES  OF  REDEMPTION.          243 

The  requisition  is  a  grateful  love  to  God,  and  to  all 
the  children  of  God  for  Jesus'  sake,  because  the  Word 
made  flesh  has  suffered  for  them.1  The  angels  see 
God  here  in  a  new  light,  and  must  have  by  it  new 
emotions ;  but  the  debt  of  grateful  love  is  especially 
for  human  beings,  for  it  was  in  human  flesh,  and 
especially  in  behalf  of  humanity,  that  the  wondrous 
sacrifice  was  made.  Hence  the  gospel  is  so  full  of 
the  claim  for  love.  It  is  the  essential  grace,  and  as 
in  the  gospel  God  has  shown  himself  to  be  love,  so 
none  can  be  of  the  gospel  and  in  the  gospel  kingdom 
who  are  not  controlled  by  grateful  love  to  God  and 
benevolent  love  to  man.  By  the  one  fact  of  the  in- 
carnation, there  goes  out  the  claim  to  a  new  duty 
upon  the  moral  universe  to  love  a  self-denying  God ; 
and  in  the  case  of  man,  a  debt  beyond  all  power  of 
cancelling  is  imposed,  of  gratitude  to  God  and  com- 
passionate regard  to  all  his  race  for  Jesus'  sake ;  and 
in  the  case  of  the  saved  sinner,  a  connecting  bond  is 
made  to  God,  and  a  fountain  of  heavenly  blessedness 
is  opened  in  the  immortal  soul,  which  no  merely  just 
spirit  can  conceive,  and  in  which  his  perfect  right- 
eousness does  not  qualify  him  to  participate.  The 
marriage  supper  of  the  Son  of  God  has  its  wedding- 
garment,  which  no  angel  can  put  on.  The  Christian 
soul  not  only  loves  much,  but  he  loves  in  a  peculiar 
manner,  because  of  the  precious  blood  of  Christ's  re- 
demption, whereby  much  has  been  forgiven  him. 

1  John  xv.  12-14. 


244  REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

6.  REDEMPTION  is  OPEN  TO  ALL,  BUT  THE  RENEWED 
ONLY  APPROPRIATE  IT.  —  In  itself,  the  Redemption 
wrought  by  Christ  is  no  more  for  one  than  for  all 
others,  but  essentially  it  is  available  for  all.  So  much 
as  Jesus  has  done  would  be  necessary  that  one  sin- 
ner should  be  saved,  and  no  more  than  he  has  done 
would  be  necessary  if  all  were  saved.  The  full 
equivalent  for  both  precept  and  penalty  of  law  is 
found  in  the  work  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  in  nothing 
else,  and  no  one  of  the  saved  can  appropriate  a  part 
to  himself,  thereby  leaving  only  so  much  less  for 
others ;  but  every  saved  sinner  appropriates  in  his 
own  case  the  full  value  of  the  entire  redemption-pur" 
chase.  The  full  manifestation  of  God  in  human  flesh 
is  necessary,  in  order  that  God  may  be  just  in  justify- 
ing any  believer ;  and  when  never  so  many  have  in 
this  way  been  justified,  the  full  manifestation  of  God 
in  Christ's  humility  is  equally  available  for  more,  and 
in  itself  is  absolutely  exhaustless.  Hence  every- 
where the  Scripture  representation  of  the  availability 
of  Jesus'  redemption  for  all  sinners.  He  is  "  the  Lamb 
of  God,  which  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world."  1 
And  moreover,  salvation  is  offered  to  all  on  his  ac- 
count, as  in  the  representative  of  gospel  salvation  by 
the  parable  of  a  Marriage  Feast,  the  messengers  were 
required,  "  As  many  as  ye  shall  find,  bid  to  the  mar- 
riage.''' 2 

1  John  i.  29,  vi.  61;    2  Cor.  v.  15-19;    1  Tim.  iv.  10;    Heb.  ii.  9; 
1  John  ii.  2. 

2  Matt.  xxii.  9 ;  Mark  xvi.  15,  16 ;  John  iii.  16,  17 ;  Rev.  xxii.  17. 


DOCTRINES  OF  REDEMPTION.          245 

Still,  though  thus  available  for  and  actually  offered 
to  all,  its  individual  appropriation  can  be  only  on  the 
return  of  the  sinner  to  pious  loyalty.  The  offer  puts 
fully  within  reach  of  all  that  which  only  the  renewed 
disposition  will  take  or  can  make  to  be  his  own.  The 
essence  of  gospel  salvation  is  reconciliation  with  God  ; 
and  with  all  that  Jesus  has  done,  peaceful  communion 
between  man  and  God  can  never  come  while  the  man 
hates  and  rebels.  And  also,  on  the  other  hand,  what 
Jesus  has  done  has  honored  the  law  •  but  the  honor 
would  become  dishonor  were  the  rebellious  to  be  taken 
into  communion.  Redemption  would  be  made  self-con- 
tradictory ;  honoring  God's  government  by  Jesus'  obe- 
dience to  death  on  earth,  and  dishonoring  it  by  fellow- 
ship with  incorrigible  rebels  against  it  in  heaven.  The 
gospel  message  of  free  salvation  to  a  lost  world  can 
apply  its  pardon  and  justification  only  to  such  as  re- 
pent and  believe. 

And  this  makes  it  necessary  that  we  look  to  the 
individual  appropriation  of  redemption  in  these  two 
aspects :  — 

1.  Of  Pardon.  —  Pardon  is  a  remission  of  legal 
penalty.  Gospel  pardon  is  always  represented  as  ap- 
plied to  the  sinner  solely  on  the  ground  of  Christ's 
atonement.  In  his  self-sacrifice  the  lawgiver  finds  an 
equivalent  for  the  sinner's  deserved  punishment.  The 
estimate  is.  that  of  sacrificial  value,  and  the  view  is 
that  of  an  altar-scene  with  a  pure  victim  and  flowing 
blood.  Christ's  self-sacrifice  is  the  expiation  for  sin. 

But  though  this  be  adequate  to  sustain  legal  author- 


246          REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

ity  as  well  as  executed  penalty  would,  yet  cannot  this 
be  while  the  sinner  persists  in  rebellion.  The  atoning 
blood  of  Christ  so  appropriated  would  present  the  in- 
tolerable inconsistency  of  the  sovereign  upholding 
law  with  one  hand  and  pulling  it  down  with  the  other. 
The  offender  must  confess  and  forsake  his  sin,  and 
stand  loyal  to  the  government,  or  notwithstanding  the 
adequacy  of  Jesus'  sacrifice  to  sustain  law,  it  may  not, 
in  the  absence  of  godly  sorrow  for  sin  and  return  to 
loyalty,  be  put  as  substitute  for  his  legal  punishment. 
The  heart  of  sincere  loyalty  must  be  the  condition 
for  appropriating  the  substitute,  and  the  consistent 
index  of  such  return  to  loyalty  is  the  evidence  of 
hearty  repentance,  which  is  the  specific  gracious  ex- 
ercise always  put  in  the  Scriptures  as  the  requisite 
for  obtaining  pardon.  "He  that  covereth  his  sins 
shall  not  prosper ;  but  whoso  confesseth  and  forsaketh 
them  shall  find  mercy.'7 1  Repentance  has  in  it  an  ac- 
knowledgment of  guilty  dement,  and  also  that  remis- 
sion of  penalty  is  of  favor,  and  alone  for  the  sake  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

2.  Of  Justification.  —  Justification  is  putting  right 
towards  law,  which  pardon  as  remission  of  deserved  pen- 
alty cannot  accomplish.  In  the  sinner's  justification 
there  is  more  than  an  equivalent  substitute  for  legal 
penalty,  even  an  equivalent  for  the  legal  obedience  the 
sinner  should  have,  but  has  not,  rendered.  This  is 
found  only  in  Christ's  obedience  unto  death,  as  he  u  is 

1  Prov.  xxviii.  13.     So  also  Isa.  Iv.  7 ;  Luke  xxiv.  47. 


DOCTRINES   OF  REDEMPTION.  247 

the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness."  1  The  estimate 
of  this  equivalent  is  in  the   satisfying  the  precept 
of  the  law,  and  not  penalty  as  in  pardon ;  and  hence ' 
the  view  is  wholly  that  of  judicial  inquisition  in  a  legal 
trial,  and  not  of  expiation  in  an  altar-scene. 

Literally,  justification  is  a  making  just ;  and  person- 
al sinless  obedience  to  law  is  that  which  essentially 
makes  the  subject  legally  just.  But  when  law  has 
been  violated,  the  sinning  subject  cannot  make  him- 
self just  with  that  violated  precept ;  hence,  if  justi- 
fied, there  must  be  some  substitute  for  that  per- 
sonal rectitude  in  which  he  has  failed.  This,  as 
above  shown,  is  Christ's  obedience  unto  death,  by 
which  God's  regard  for  righteousness  is  as  fairly  and 
fully  manifested,  and  for  which  the  sinner  may  be  de- 
clared right  towards  law,  as  if  he  himself  had  obeyed 
the  precept.  In  such  case,  it  is  the  official  declaration  of 
the  sovereign  which  makes  just;  and  this  justifying 
declaration  justifies  itself  before  the  universe,  and  in 
God's  own  consciousness,  on  the  ground  of  the  unim- 
peachable equivalency  of  the  substitute. 

But  God  may  not  consistently  so  justify  in  a  state 
of  persistent  disloyalty.  Notwithstanding  Christ's 
obedience  and  adequate  righteousness,  if  the  rebel- 
lious subject  persist  in  rebellion  and  discard  all  inter- 
est in  Christ's  righteousness,  God  would  be  unjust  to 
himself,  to  his  subjects,  and  to  Jesus  in  his  suffering 
obedience,  should  he  declare  one  to  be  right  towards 
law  who  still  hated  the  law  himself  and  the  equivalent 

1  Eom.  x.  4. 


248          REDEEMER'S  ADVENT  AND  DOCTRINE. 

substitution  on  which  he  must  stand.  The  sinner 
must  cordially  trust  the  foundation  he  takes,  or 
he  cannot  be  permitted  to  stand  upon  it.  Hence 
everywhere  the  Scriptures  put  faith  as  the  indispen- 
sable condition  of  justification.  "He  is  just  in  justi- 
fying him  which  believeth  in  Jesus."  1  And  it  is  in 
"  being  justified  by  faith  we  have  peace  with  God."  2 
It  is  the  faith  which  works  by  love,  purifies  the  heart, 
and  overcomes  the  world,  that  so  unites  to  Christ  as 
to  be  declared  by  God  right  in  law  on  the  substitution 
of  Christ's  righteousness.  Neither  is  Christ's  expia- 
tion legal  penalty,  nor  Christ's  righteousness  that  obe- 
dience which  the  sinner  should  have  rendered,  but  on 
both  sides  they  are  equivalent  substitutes  appropriat- 
ed on  conditions  of  repentance  and  faith. 

Justification  is,  therefore,  of  grace,  for  it  is  in 
Christ's  name  alone,  and  the  faith  which  appropriates 
it  is  through  the  gracious  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit ; 
still  the  law  is  left  in  full  force  and  authority,  since 
Christ  has  magnified  and  honored  it.  No  sinner  is. 
justified/or  his  works ;  and  yet,  as  his  works  indicate 
the  measure  of  his  faith,  he  is  justified  according  to 
his  works. 

1  Horn.  iii.  26.  8  Horn.  v.  1. 


MANNER  OP  THE  SPIRIT'S  COMING.  249 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    HOLY  GHOST    SEALS  REDEMPTION  TO 

MAN. 

THE  same  Third  Person  who  wrought  form  and  con- 
sistency in  the  physical  universe,  when  the  Second 
Person  had  created  the  material  and  ethereal  atoms 
according  to  the  eternal  ideas  in  the  First  Person,  must 
now  be  contemplated  as  consummating  the  plan  of  re- 
demption which  the  Father  has  devised  and  the  Son 
has  actually  exhibited.  This  Third  Person  is  as  essen- 
tial for  the  consummation  of  redemption  as  for  the 
completion  of  creation.  The  Second  Person  provides 
full  redemption  for  all,  but  has  not  applied  it  to  any ; 
the  Third  Person  takes  the  true  meaning  of  this  pro- 
vision, and  so  works  in  the  spirit  of  the  lost  sinner  as 
to  renew  him  in  penitence  and  faith,  whereby  he  is 
"  sealed  unto  the  day  of  redemption."  The  Son,  hav- 
ing "  obtained  eternal  redemption  for  us,"  "  goes 
away,"  and  then,  "  sent "  of  him  and  the  Father,  the 
Holy  Ghost  "  comes,"  and  consummates  the  work  in 
the  conviction,  conversion,  and  sanctification  of  men, 
who  may  then  be  fully  pardoned,  and  justified,  and 
glorified. 


250  DISPENSATION  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

Such  is  the  depravity  induced  by  the -fall,  that,  not- 
withstanding all  that  Christ  has  done,  no  sinner  will 
become  reconciled  to  God,  except  by  the  special  work 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  "  going  away  "  of  the  Son 
to  the  Father,  and  the  "  sending  "  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
by  the  Son  and  the  Father,  inaugurate  the  new  evan- 
gelical Dispensation  of  the  Spirit,  under  which  apos- 
tles and  evangelists  are  fitted  for  their  mission,  and 
converted  men  are  gathered  into  the  church,  and  the 
church  extended  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  until  the 
"  coming  again  "  of  the  Messiah,  who  then  accomplish- 
es the  last  things  in  the  mediatorial  kingdom.  This 
Dispensation  of  the  Spirit  is  exclusive  of  his  work  in 
physical  creation,  and  inclusive  only  of  his  spiritual 
operation  in  the  redemption  of  humanity. 


SECTION    I. 

THE  MANNER  OF  THE   SPIRIT'S  COMING. 

ANTECEDENT  to  the  incarnation,  the  Holy  Spirit,  as 
well  as  the  Son,  were  each  doing  the  work  peculiar  to 
his  distinctive  personality  in  the  Godhead,  in  the 
moral  as  well  as  in  the  material  world.  In  a  similar 
way,  and  to  the  same  end,  the  Spirit  moved  on  human 
hearts  in  the  Old  Testament  dispensation  as  in  the 
New,  and  all  the  pious  loyalty  among  men  before  the 
advent  of  Christ  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  Spirit's  oper- 


MANNER   OP  THE  SPIRIT'S   COMING.  251 

ation,  as  really  as  the  piety  in  the  race  since  Christ's 
death  and  resurrection.  The  Spirit's  future  coming 
and  work  were  more  difficult  for  human  apprehension 
than  even  the  coming  and  work  of  the  promised  Mes- 
siah; yet  both  were  revealed  in  their  respective*  of- 
fices for  restoring  lost  men  to  Old  Testament  saints, 
and  the  more  eminent  and  experienced  among  them 
recognized,  in  good  measure,  the  reality  and  impor- 
tance of  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  David 
earnestly  prayed,  "  Take  not  thy  Holy  Spirit  from 
me."  l  And  Isaiah  represents  Moses  and  his  people 
as  remembered  of  God,  saying,  "  Where  is  he  that 
put  his  Holy  Spirit  within  him  ?  "  2 

1.  THE  MOSAIC  RITUAL  PREFIGURED  THE  SPIRIT'S 
WORK.  —  The  sacrificial  blood  was  in  expiation  for 
sin,  and  prefigured  the  atoning  blood  of  Christ ;  while 
the  ceremonial  application  of  water  was  for  purifying 
from  sin,  and  foretokened  the  cleansing  efficacy  of  the 
Spirit's  influence.  And  this  use  of  water  in  the  He- 
brew ritual  is  usually  connected  with  the  sacrifices, 
and  rendered  almost  as  conspicuous  as  the  blood. 

Thus,  when  Aaron  and  his  sons  were  consecrated 
to  the  priesthood,  connected  with  the  sacrifices  and 
the  sprinkling  of  blood,  they  were  to  be  "  washed 
with  water ;  "  and  the  sacrificial  ram  was  to  be  cut  in 
pieces,  and  "  the  inwards  of  him  washed ;  "  and  a  bra- 
zen laver  between  the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation 
and  the  altar  was  to  be  perpetually  supplied  with 

1  Psalm  li.  11.  2  Isa.  Ixiii.  11. 


252  DISPENSATION   OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

water  for  the  priests'  purifying  in  their  daily  ministra- 
tions.1 And  in  a  similar  manner  all  the  Levites  were 
to  be  cleansed  by  "  sprinkling  the  water  of  purifying 
upon  them."  2  And  so  with  the  sin-ofiering  for  defile- 
ment from  varied  sources ;  there  were  to  be  kept  the 
burnt  ashes  of  a  red  heifer  that  must  be  mingled  in 
water,  called  "  the  water  of  separation,"  and  which 
must  be  sprinkled  upon  the  unclean  for  their  purify- 
ing.3 And  the  soldiers  returning  from  war,  and  the 
spoils  taken,  were  to  have  "  the  water  of  separation  " 
applied,  and  what  spoils  would  not  stand  purifying  by 
fire  were  to  pass  through  water.4  And  unclean  ves- 
sels were  to  be  "  rinsed  in  water."  6 

These  varied  baptisms  and  purifications  were  ex- 
tensively observed  by  the  Jews  at  the  coming  of 
Christ.6 

2.  IT  WAS  ANNOUNCED  IN  PROPHECY.  —  Ezekiel  looked 
forward  to  the  evangelization  of  Israel,  and  recog- 
nizes the  Holy  Spirit  as  the  source  of  their  cleansing, 
and  author  of  a  new  heart  and  a  new  spirit  within 
them :  "  Then  will  I  sprinkle  clean  water  upon  you, 
and  ye  shall  be  clean ; "  "  a  new  heart  also  will  I  give 
you;"  "and  I  will  put  my  Spirit  within  you,  and 
cause  you  to  walk  in  my  statutes,  and  ye  shall  keep 
my  judgments  and  do  them."7  And  Jeremiah  refers 
in  prophecy  to  the  same  spiritual  cleansing  under  the 

1  Ex.  xxix.  4-17,  xxx.  18-21,  xl.  12.  2  Num.  viii.  7. 

3  Lev.  xi.  32;  Num.  xix.  9,  18,  19.  4  Num.  xxxi.  23. 

6  Lev.  vi.  28,  xv.  12.  6  Mark  vii.  3,  4 ;  John  ii.  6. 

7  Ezek.  xxxv  i.  25-29. 


MANNER   OP   THE   SPIRIT'S   COMING.  253 

representation  of  a  new  covenant :  "  For  behold,  the 
days  come,  saith  the  Lord,  that  I  will  make  a  new 
covenant  with  the  house  of  Israel,  and  with  the  house 
of  Judah ; "  "  this  shall  be  the  covenant  that  I  will 
make  with  the  house  of  Israel  in  those  days,  saith 
the  Lord :  I  will  put  my  law  in  their  inward  parts, 
and  write  it  on  their  hearts,  and  will  be  their  God, 
and  they  shall  be  my  people."  l  And  especially  Joel 
foretells  the  coming  of  the  Spirit  as  securing  inspira- 
tion and  piety,  and  which  was  quoted  by  Peter  as 
then  fulfilled  when  the  Holy  Ghost  came :  "  It  shall 
come  to  pass  afterward  that  I  will  pour  out  my 
Spirit  upon  all  flesh ; "  "  also  upon  the  servants  and 
handmaids  in  those  days  will  I  pour  out  my  Spirit."  2 

3.  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  WAS  CIRCUMSTANTIALLY  PROM- 
ISED TO  HIS  DISCIPLES  BY  JESUS  CHRIST.  —  In  that  most 
tender  scene  on  the  night  of  the  last  passover  with 
his  disciples,  when  he  let  them  know  of  his  crucifixion 
just  at  hand,  and  his  final  departure  from  the  world  to 
the  Father,  among  the  most  prominent  and  consolatory 
teachings  was  his  promise  of  the  coming  Spirit,  who 
should  comfort,  strengthen,  and  guide  them  to  higher 
Christian  experiences  than  they  had  yet  attained.  In 
various  particulars,  the  results  of  this  coming  Spirit 
were  presented  for  their  consolation  and  encourage- 
ment. He  would  not  depart  from  them.  "  I  will 
pray  the  Father,  and  he  shall  give  you  another  Com- 
forter, that  he  may  abide  with  you  forever."3  He 

1  Jer.  xxxi.  31-34.  2  Joel  ii.  28-32.  3  John  xiv.  16. 


254  DISPENSATION   OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

should  communicate  new  truth,  and  quicken  their 
memory  of  past  instructions.  "The  Comforter,  which 
is  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  the  Father  will  send  in  my 
name,  he  shall  teach  you  all  things,  and  bring  all 
things  to  your  remembrance,  whatsoever  I  have  said 
unto  you."  1  His  testimony  will  strengthen  and  con- 
firm their  witness  of  Christ's  ministry  from  the  first. 
This  Comforter,  "  even  the  Spirit  of.  truth,  which  pro- 
ceedeth  from  the  Father,  he  shall  testify  of  me :  and 
ye  shall  bear  witness,  because  ye  have  been  with  me 
from  the  beginning."  2 

It  was  better  for  them  and  for  the  world  that  Jesus 
should  depart,  for  the  Spirit,  who  would  not  other- 
wise come,  would  work  graciously  and  extensively  in 
the  world,  and  in  making  Christ  himself  more  clearly 
known  by  his  people.  He  would  make  the  sin  of  all 
unbelief  in  Christ  conspicuous,  and  give  assurance 
that  Christ's  work  on  earth  was  an  acceptable  ground 
of  justification  with  God,  and  that  Christ  had  utterly 
.vanquished  the  devil ;  and  also  besides  new  revela- 
tions of  truth,  he  would  add  new  glory  to  Jesus  by 
making  brighter  exhibitions,  of  him;  all  which  is 
taught  in  his  saying,  "  When  he  is  come,  he  will  re- 
prove the  world  of  sin,  and  of  righteousness,  and  of 
judgment ;  of  sin,  because  they  believe  not  on  me  ; 
of  righteousness,  because  I  go  to  the  Father,  and  ye 
see  me  no  more ;  of  judgment,  because  the  Prince  of 
this  world  is  judged."  "  He  shall  glorify  me,  for  he 
shall  receive  of  mine,  and  shall  show  it  unto  you."  3 

1  John  xiv.  26.  •  John  xv.  26,  27.  3  John  xvi.  7-15. 


MANNER   OF  THE  SPIRIT'S   COMING.  255 

And  at  a  former  time  Christ  had  foretold  their  com- 
ing persecutions,  and  that  they  need  have  no  anxiety 
about  answers  to  charges  in  their  arraignments  before 
courts  and  councils,  for  the  Spirit  would  inspire  them. 
"  When  they  bring  you  unto  the  synagogues,  and  unto 
magistrates  and  powers,  take  ye  no  thought  how  or 
what  thing  ye  shall  answer ;  for  the  Holy  Ghost  shall 
teach  you  in  the  same  hour  what  ye  ought  to  say."1  And 
after  Christ's  resurrection  and  his  commission  to  the 
apostles,  just  at  the  hour  of  his  ascension,  he  refers  to 
this  promise  of  the  Spirit  in  saving,  "  Behold,  I  send 
the  promise  of  my  Father  upon  you ;  but  tarry  ye  in 
the  city  of  Jerusalem  until  ye  be  endued  with  power 
from  on  high.'-  2  And  then  Luke  enlarges  upon  this 
charge  in  another  writing,  that,  Christ  and  the  dis- 
ciples being  assembled  together,  "he  commanded 
them  that  they  should  not  depart  from  Jerusalem, 
but  wait  for  the  promise  of  the  Father,  which,  saith 
he,  ye  have  heard  of  me.  For  John  truly  baptized 
with  water,  but  ye  shall  be  baptized  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  not  many  days  hence."-  "Ye  shall  receive 
power  after  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you, 
and  ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me."  3 

According  to  this  charge  there  given,  the  disciples 
went  back  from  the  Mount  of  Olives,  after  Christ's 
ascension,  and  took  an  upper  room  in  Jerusalem,  and 
abode  in  that  city,  having  constant  communion  and 
prayer  "  with  the  women,  and  Mary,  the  mother  of 
Jesus,  and  with  his  brethren."4  Here  also  at  the 

1  Luke  xii.  11,  12.  2  Luke  xxiv.  49. 

3  Acts  i.  3,  5,  and  8.  4  Acts  i.  13,  U. 


256  DISPENSATION   OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

counsel  of  Peter,  they  cast  lots,  and  appointed  Mat- 
thias to  the  place  in  the  apostleship  "from  which 
Judas'  by  transgression  fell."  l  All  were  thus  in  ex- 
pectancy, waiting  the  coming  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

4.  THE  ACTUAL  DESCENT  OF  THE  HOLY  GHOST.  — 
The  Passover  prefigured  redemption  by  Christ,  and 
thus,  as  it  was,  the  crucifixion  appropriately  occurred 
at  the  hour  for  killing  the  paschal  lamb.  Fifty  days 
after  the  institution  of  the  first  Passover  and  Israel's 
departure  from  Egypt  was  the  giving  of  the  law  from 
Sinai,  and  the  annual  feast  of  first  fruits  was  instituted 
afterwards  to  occur  at  the  same  period.  The  sacri- 
fices of  burnt-offerings,  peace-offerings,  and  the  sin- 
offering  were  made  at  the  time  of  this  "  feast  of 
weeks,"  so  called  because  the  fifty  days  made  an 
intervening  week  of  weeks,  and  which  Pentecost 
feast  was  in  perpetual  remembrance  of  deliverance 
from  Egyptian  bondage,2  and  of  which  the  Spirit's 
freeing  the  soul  from  the  bondage  of  sin  was  the 
antitype,  and  so  appropriately  the  descending  power 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  was  on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  The 
full  account  is  given  in  the  second  chapter  of  Acts. 

The  hundred  and  twenty  disciples  of  Christ,  then 
made,  were  by  agreement  together  in  one  place,  and 
a  sound  like  the  roar  of  a  strong  wind  filled  the  room 
where  they  were,  and  flickering  flames  appeared  on 
the  heads  of  the  disciples,  and  the  power  of  inspire 
tion,  and  miracles,  and  speaking  with  tongues,  was  at 

1  Acts  i.  15-26.  2  Lev.  xxiii.  15-21 ;  Deut.  xvi.  9-12. 


once 


MANNER  OP  THE  SPIRIT'S   COMTJJ&^V^   or26& 

communicated  to  them.     The  Wondrous  event 

drew  the  multitudes  from  all  lands  at  the  feast  to  this 
meeting  of  Christ's  disciples,  and  each  natioTi^ra  its 
own  tongue,  heard  from  these  Galileans  the  Chris- 
tian truths  to  which  "  the  Spirit  gave  them  utter- 
ance." Some  mockers  said  it  was  drunkenness  from 
new  wine,  but  to  most  the  phenomenon  was  inexpli- 
cable. Peter  stood  up,  and  so  expounded  and  applied 
the  occurrence,  and  the  truths  involved,  that  three 
thousand  believed  in  Christ,  were  baptized,  and  added 
to  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  as  a  Gospel  Church 
the  same  day.  The  Holy  Ghost  thus  signalized  his 
first  special  descent,  and  from  that  time  forward  the 
church  has  depended  on  the  presence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  guide  her  ministry  and  membership,  and 
make  their  evangelical  work  and  example  effectual  in 
converting  the  world  to  Christianity.  Jesus  Christ 
appeared  to  Saul  supernaturally  after  this,  and  thus 
qualified  him  as  an  apostle,  to  be  a  witness  to  Christ's 
resurrection ;  but  with  this  exception,  the  divine  au- 
thority and  power  of  the  Christian  church  have  been 
under  the  immediate  dispensation  of  the  Spirit.  In 
the  apostolic  age  miraculous  gifts,  prophecy,  and 
speaking  with  tongues,  were  communicated  by  the 
Spirit  for  eminently  accrediting  some  disciples,  but 
the  mass  of  Christians  and  Christian  ministers  then 
and  since  have  relied  on  his  indwelling  in  the  heart. 
17 


258  DISPENSATION   OF  THE  SPIRIT. 


SECTION    II. 

THE  MANNER  OF  THE   SPIRIT'S  AGENCY. 

THE  Spirit  came  like  the  Saviour's  representation 
of  it  to  Nicodemus  ;  a  "  wind,"  that  one  might  u  hear 
the  sound  thereof,  but  could  not  tell  whence  it  came 
nor  whither  it  went."  1  No  sense  perceives  the  Holy 
Ghost,  nor  is  there  any  consciousness  of  his  presence, 
and  we  can  know  directly  nothing  of  him  except  as 
reason  sees  him  in  his  moral  effects,  just  as  reason 
sees  the  Creator  in  his  works,  or  except  as  revelation 
may  describe  him.  All  communion  of  disembodied 
spirits  is  beyond  our  sense-consciousness,  and  espe- 
cially must  the  communications  of  the  Absolute  Spirit 
be  a  secret  to  human  experience,  as  to  the  mode  of 
giving  over  what  is  his  to  be  an  impartation  to  us. 
And  yet  the  facts  given  in  experience  and  divine 
revelation  do  permit  the  insight  of  reason  to  deter- 
mine many  things  with  strong  positiveness  about  the , 
manner  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  operation  upon  the  human 
soul.  Our  creed  here  need  not,  and  should  not,  be 
mere  credulity. 

1.  IT  is  AS  MORAL  POWER  DISTINCT  FROM  PHYSICAL 
FORCE.  —  Like  the   life-energy,  the  Spirit  uses  and 

1  John  iii.  8. 


MANNER   OF   THE   SPIRIT'S   AGENCY.  259 

controls  force,  without  itself  being  force ;  and  as  a 
user  of  forces,  his  agency  is  properly  power.  But 
as  his  power  is  not  a  control  of  forces  in  building  up 
organisms,  as  the  plant-instinct,  nor  a  mover  to  loco- 
motion, as  in  sense-appetites,  which,  though  spontane- 
ous, are  still  in  nature,  and  as  it  is  wholly  in  the  end 
of  fulfilling  reasonable  behests,  so  is  it  wholly  moral 
and  not  mechanical  power.  The  Spirit  is  free  person- 
ality in  conscious  will,  and  he  works  in  mind  as  will, 
and  not  at  all  as  instinct,  or  appetite.  He  controls 
the  man  only  through  imperatives  and  affections,  and 
it  is  exclusively  in  this  moral  field  that  we  are  now 
to  contemplate  the  manner  of  the  Spirit's  agency. 
We  put  aside  all  mechanical  force,  and  blind  instinct, 
and  sense-craving,  and  all  analogies  with  such  moving 
energies,  —  for  they  are  all  bound  in  the  necessities 
of  nature,  and  have  no  alternatives  in  their  sequences, 
—  and  contemplate  the  Holy  Spirit  as  supernatural, 
working  on  that  which  also  in  man  is  supernatural, 
and  with  activity  in  himself,  and  securing  activity  in  ** 
man, which  is  solely  reasonable  and  responsible. 

"  That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  and  that 
which  is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit ;  "  and  these  two 
are  no  more  to  be  confounded  in  their  modes  of  work- 

Y 

ing  than  in  their  manner  of  being.  The  Spirit  is 
reason  working  on  reason,  and  controls  the  sense 
only  through  reason.  The  Holy  Ghost  can  find  noth- 
ing in  man's  animal  nature  with  which  he  can  deal  in 
directly  gaining  his  spiritual  ends,  but  subjects  what 
is  animal  in  man  to  God's  commandments  through  S* 


260  DISPENSATION  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

conscientious  convictions  of  what  ought  to  be,  and 
loving  constraint  in  the  choices  of  what  is  right  to  be. 
He  works  not  as  on  sense  to  crave,  and  in  executing 
the  craving  to  gratify  ;  but  he  works  on  reason  "  to 
will,"  and  in  executing  the  will  "  to  do,"  that  which 
reason  approved. 

2.  THE  SPIRIT'S  ACTION  is  DIRECT  UPON  THE  HUMAN 
MIND.  —  God's  Spirit  and  man's  spirit  come  directly 
and  immediately  in  communion.  All  media  of  sense- 
apprehension  are  overpassed,  and  the  Spirit  finds  man's 
immortal  spirit  itself,  and  deals  face  to  face  with  that. 
We  have  already  seen  that  pure  spiritual  communion 
is  not  within  human  consciousness.  We  cannot  get 
beyond  the  exercises  of  our  own  spirits,  and  while, 
by  careful  introspection,  we  may  discriminate  these 
exercises,  yet  we  never  get  the  light  of  consciousness 
down  under  them,  and  descry  the  spirit  itself  putting 
forth  these  exercises,  and  of  course  we  shall  never 
get  God's  immediate  communings  with  our  spirits 
into  consciousness.  But,  from  the  very  fact  that  this 
is  below  all  conscious  exercising,  and  not  through 
any  media  of  phenomenal  activities,  it  must  be  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  human  soul  are  together  in 
these  transactions,  with  nothing  between  them.  And 
such  is  clearly  Scripture  statement,  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  works  here  exclusively  from  all  intervening 
instrumentalities.  "  Which  were  born,  not  of  blood, 
nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man, 


MANNER   OP  THE   SPIRIT'S   AGENCY.  261 

but  of  God." l  The  apostle  says,  "  I  have  planted  and 
Apollos  watered,  but  God  gave  the  increase ;  so  then 
neither  is  he  that  planteth  anything,  neither  he  that 
watereth,  but  God  that  giveth  the  increase."2  It 
is  also  an  agency  distinct  from  the  action  of  truth  ; 
though  both  may  concur,  yet  is  not  the  Spirit's  action 
the  truth's  action,  for  God's  choosing  to  salvation  is 
"  through  sane tifi cation  of  the  spirit  and  belief  of 
the  truth."  3 

3.      IT  PRECEDES    AND    TENDS  TO  THE   RIGHT  WILLING 

OP  THE  MAN.  —  The  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  meets 
the  mind  of  the  sinner  with  his  spirit  disposed  already 
on  sense  and  self-gratification,  and  not  on  the  ends  of 
reason  and  self-approbation.  There  may  be  alarming 
apprehensions  and  stinging  remorse,  but  no  disposition 
that  is  a  return  to  God  and  righteousness.  The  fear 
and  conviction  of  guilt  may  be  the  first  -intimations 
that  the  Spirit  has  already  met  the  careless  soul. 
The  end  of  the  Spirit  is  in  the  sinner's  disposing  his 
voluntariness  aright,  and  which  will  be  the  beginning 
of  piety  in  the  sinner,  and  the  increase  of  piety  in  the 
saint ;  to  the  former  the  Spirit's  work  is  precedent  to 
any  holiness,  and  to  the  latter  it  is  precedent  to  the 
increased  degree  intended,  and  in  both  the  end  is  to 
this  disposing  the  soul  loyally.  Not  at  all  as  if  the  soul 
had  begun  and  was  doing  the  work,  and  the  Spirit  of 
God  co-operated  in  helping,  but  in  all  cases  it  precedes 
the  voluntary  disposing,  whether  anew  in  piety,  or  to  a 

1  John  i.  13.  2  1  Cor.  iii.  6,  7.  32  Thess.  ii.  13. 


262  DISPENSATION   OP  THE  SPIRIT. 

new  degree  of  steadfastness.  But  for  the  Spirit's 
power,  the  disposing  in  holiness,  either  in  the  renew- 
ing or  in  the  growing  sanctification,  would  never 
occur.  God  works  on  the  mind  "  to  will "  and  "  to 
do,"and  thus  before  the  willing  and  doing. 

v .  4.  THE  POWER  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  MAY  BE  RE- 
SISTED BY  THE  SINNER.  —  All  moral  power  on  mind 
leaves  still  to  that  mind  the  alternatives  of  compliance 
or  resistance  open.  It  never  overbears  the  liberty 
and  responsibility  .of  the  mind.  A  careful  analysis 
reveals  clearly  that  so  it  must  be  in  the  application 
of  any  moral  power  to  the  human  spirit.  When  the 
truth  in  reference  to  any  natural  sensibility  reaches 
the  mind,  that  truth  itself  works  an  effect  in  the  mind 
spontaneously,  without  the  mind's  willing,  anything 
about  it.  A  man  hears  of  the  misfortune  or  death  of 
a  friend,  and  the  sad  message  does  its  work  in  the 

mind  irrespective  of  the  man's  agency.     And  so,  when 
v'' 

any  divine  truth,  as  an  enunciation  of  God's  will,  is 

clearly  apprehended,  it  makes  its  spontaneous  im- 
pression, and  quickens  intellect  and  sensibility,  ere 
0/  yet  the  will  has  been  reached.  The  conscience  starts 
into  conviction  of  obligation,  and  of  guilt  at  not  hav- 
ing fulfilled  a  long  incumbent  duty,  and  in  this  convic- 
tion the  will  has  had  nothing  to  do.  The  rebellious  and 
the  loyal  wills  are  alike  in  this  respect ;  that  applied 
truth  works  its  own  convictions  in  the  soul,  indepen- 
dently of  the  soul's  willing  whether  it  shall  so  be,  or  not. 
And  this  is  the  meaning  of  Christ's  declaration,  "  The 


MANNER  OF  THE  SPIRIT'S  AGENCY.  263 

words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit,  and  they 
are  life."  l  There  is  a  living  efficiency  in  truth  to 
quicken  and  kindle  mental  susceptibility,  without  the 
mind's  willing  it  should  do  so. 

And  now,  as  a  moral  power,  the  action  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  on  mind  is  strictly  analogous.  That  spiritual 
power  has  its  own  efficiency  in  modifying  the  mind  on 
which  it  works,  aside  from  the  mind's  will  helping  or 
hindering.  The  truth  and  the  Spirit  may  affect  the  mind 
together,  and  each  in  its  own  way  distinct  one  from 
the  other,  and  that  mind  not  have  willed  at  all  in  the 
matter.  So  far  forth,  either  with  the  Spirit  or  the 
truth,  there  has  been  no  occasion  for  resistance.  But 
this  quickened  susceptibility  by  the  truth  and  by  the 
Spirit  prompts  to  its  execution,  and  urges  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  obligation ;  and  just  here  comes  the  occa- 
sion  for  responsible  action.  The  human  spirit  must 
now  yield  to  or  resist  the  striving.  The  will  must 
now  come  into  exercise,  and  the  human  spirit  dispose 
itself  with  or  against  the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  truth. 
The  alternatives  are  both  open  to  it,  and  it  must  take 
one  or  the  other ;  and  as  its  disposing  is,  that  is  its 
will,  and  this  disposing  for  or  against  is  of  the  hu- 
man spirit's  own  origination.  This  disposing  is  not 
the  truth's,  nor  the  Holy  Ghost's  disposing,  but  solely 
the  man's  spirit  disposing,  and  wholly  at  his  responsi- 
bility.  His  spirit  is  not  like  his  sense-appetite,  which, 
as  of  nature,  must  go  towards  highest  gratification, 
and  has  no  alternatives  but  degrees  of  happiness, 

1  John  vi.  63, 


264  DISPENSATION  OP  THE  SPIRIT. 

of  which  the  higher  must  prevail  against  the  lower ; 
but  his  spirit  is  above  nature,  competent  to  control 
natural  appetite  and  all  its  gratifications,  and  to  sacri- 
fice and  reject  any  degree  of  happiness  for  self-appro- 
bation in  righteousness.  And  to  this  the  Spirit  strives, 
and  the  truth  prompts,  and  neither  can  go  any  further, 
for  the  pious  yielding  or  the  impious  resisting  must  be 
of  the  human  spirit's  originating.  Hence  the  earnest 
caution  against  "  resisting  the  Spirit,"  "  quenching  the 
Spirit,"  and  the  manifest  accounting  the  sinner  him- 
self guilty  in  doing  it.1 

5.  THE  EFFECTUAL  CALLING  OF  THE  SPIRIT  INDUCES 
A  COMPLYING  WILL.  —  The  human  preacher  calls  and 
warns,  invites  and  persuades,  but  he  necessarily  stands 
outside  of  the  minds  he  addresses ;  and  can  only  do 
his  work  through  the  truth  he  uses.  He  can  only  use 
means,  and  be  himself  but  an  instrument  in  saving 
sinners.  The  Holy  Ghost  most  gloriously  reverses 
this  order  of  working  on  human  hearts.  He  comes 
directly  to  the  human  spirit,  and  beyond  all  means 
works  on  it,  and  quickens  every  faculty  and  suscepti- 
bility of  the  man.  He  rouses  conscience  that  it  can- 
not sleep,  and  quickens  convictions  of  guilt  the  man 
cannot  repress,  and  stirs  sympathies  that  soften  and 
melt  the  soul's  obduracy,  so  that  he  cannot  but  sigh 
and  weep  over  his  sins.  In  thid  effectual  working, 
though  the  spirit  is  competent  to  struggle  on  and 
cleave  to  its  sensual  bondage,  it  takes  a  new  disposing, 

1  Acts  vii.  51 ;  1  Thess.  v.  19 ;  Eph.  iv.  30. 


MANNER  OF  THE  SPIRITS  AGENCY.  265 

and  renounces  flesh  and  sense,  and  wakes  and  acts  in 
the  recovered  freedom  of  its  own  sovereignty.  It 
now  rules,  and  does  not  serve,  the  lusts  of  the  flesh ; 
and  the  will  is  in  it,  and  the  choice  upon  it.  With  all 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  effectually  working,  the 
human  spirit  also  has  as  freely  worked  in  the  change 
as  in  any  act  in  his  life  when  no  special  power  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  was  present.  What  the  Spirit  has  done 
has  secured  what  the  sinner  has  done,  but  the  Spirit's 
doing  has  been  his  own,  and  the  sinner's  doing  has 
been  his,  and  without  the  former  the  change  would 
not  have  been,  and  without  the  latter  the  change  could 
not  have  been,  for  the  change  is  just  this  new  dis- 
posing. 

>/ 

6.  THE  ASSENTING  WILL  MUST  BE  TO  THE  TRUTH. — 

The  power  of  the  spirit  is  not  on  nor  through  truth, 
but  directly  on  mind ;  yet  the  truth  must  be  also  on 
the  mind  in  order  that  the  assenting  will  may  be.  No 
intelligent  willing  can  be  in  darkness,  and  this  assent- 
ing spiritual  disposing  is  in  the  end  of  known  truth 
and  conscious  obligation.  The  operation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  other  than  the  action  of  truth ;  and  if  it  were 
conceived  to  be  when  truth  was  not,  and  sufficient  for 
securing  the  change  when  the  new  disposing  shall 
come,  yet  could  not  that  new  disposing  occur  but  in 
the  presence  of  truth.  The  willing  must  have  its  end 
as  truly  as  the  knowing  and  feeling,  and  the  very  end 
of  the  pious  willing  is  the  truth  itself.  Hence  con- 
version of  spirit,  and  growing  sanctification  of  spirit, 


266  DISPENSATION  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

must  be  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  effectually  working  in 
mind,  and  must  also  be  through  the  truth  as  that  to 
which  the  mind  turns  and  embraces;  and  hence,  too, 
the  propriety  and  consistency  of  the  prayer  of  the 
Saviour,  "  Sanctify  them  through  thy  truth  ;  thy  word 
is  truth."1  God  sanctifies  as  God  renews  —  by  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  but  neither  is  done  ex- 
cept in  the  presence  and  to  the  end  of  truth,  which 
is  the  word  of  God. 


SECTION    III. 

THE  WORK  WHICH  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  ACCOMPLISHES. 

IN  creation,  no  substantial  forces  are  made  by  the 
Son  which  are  not  systematically  arranged  in  connec- 
tion by  the  Spirit;  and  so  in  redemption,  no  work 
wrought  by  the  Son  is -overlooked  by  the  Spirit,  but 
in  his  own  time  and  manner  he  puts  it  in  available 
communication  with  the  human  mind  for  executing  the 
eternal  plan  of  the  Father.  It  was  foretold  that  he 
should  "  not  speak  of  himself,"  but  should  "  take  of 
the  things  of  Christ  and  show  them  unto  us."  What 
power  Jesus  Christ  has  put  in  the  world  of  humanity 
by  his  incarnation,  life,  and  death,  the  Spirit  applies 
by  his  power  in  obtaining  the  designed  result  in 

1  John  xvii.  17. 


THE  WORK   OP  THE  SPIRIT.  267 

human  salvation.  In  the  sphere  of  redemption  the 
whole  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  upon  mind,  and  in 
full  consistency  with  human  freedom  and  responsi- 
bility ;  but  without  his  working  the  work  of  the  Son 
would  be  unavailable.  His  agency  is  as  necessary,  and 
as  lovingly  gracious  in  the  interest  of  human  salvation, 
as  that  of  the  suffering  Saviour. 

1.  THE  WORK  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  IN  INSPIRATION. 
—  The  Incarnation,  and  thereby  the  open  manifesta- 
tion of  God  in  humanity,  was  in  one  age  and  among 
the  people  of  one  country,  and  yet  this  was  destined 
to  become  known  and  felt  in  every  age  and  among  all 
people.  In  order  to  reach  coming  ages  and  distant 
lands,  it  was  necessary  to  so  embody  and  retain  the 
living  truth  in  its  power  that  it  might  be  perpetuated 
and  transmitted  to  all  future  generations.  The  wisest 
way  conceivable  for  this  was  purposed  by  inspiring 
some  selected  minds  with  the  divine  communication, 
and  prompting  them  to  record,  as  was  needed,  the 
heavenly  messages,  and  duly  authenticate  their  rec- 
ord, that  it  should  be  received  and  work  its  power  out 
upon  the  world  wherever  it  should  be  sent.  The 
essential  thing  is  the  truth  of  the  record,  and  that  it 
is  the  truth  which  God  designed  to  communicate  to 
men ;  hence  the  prime  importance  of  the  attestation 
of  this  divine  inspiring  in  the  men  who  received  and 
recorded  the  messages.  The  writers  claim  for  them- 
selves inspiration  on  the  face  of  the  record  itself,  and 
they  have  given  valid  proof  for  it ;  but  with  this  proof 


268  DISPENSATION  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

we  are  not  now  concerned,  and  only  with  the  consid- 
eration of  inspiration  itself  as  a  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  It  is  the  work  of  Absolute  Reason  within  the 
individuality  of  finite  reason,  and  so  a  work  of  the 
divine  Spirit  in  the  human  spirit,  and  which  cannot 
be  phenomenally  perceived,  but  must  be  spiritually 
discerned. 

We  may  be  much  assisted  in  rendering  this  spirit- 
ual work  intelligible  by  following  out  its  fair  analogy 
in  the  field  of  rational  art,  inasmuch  as  the  work  of 
reason  in  and  through  sense  in  any  one  case  is  very 
far  explanatory  of  all  other  cases.  The  artist  must 
first  be  fully  possessed  with  the  idea  he  is  about  to 
embody.  He  will  never  get  out  in  expression  more 
than  is  contained  in  his  archetype.  The  pattern- 
thought  may  be  an  origination  of  his  own  genius,  or 
an  adopted  and  perhaps  modified  form  from  some 
other,  but  the  idea  must  stand  clear  in  his  own  mind 
as  the  necessary  pre-requisite  of  his  communicating 
anything  to  others.  And  when  such  bright  ideal  is  in 
possession,  it  ever  proves  an  inner  stimulus,  strenu- 
ously prompting  in  some  way  to  its  outer  manifesta- 
tion. It  makes  a  mental  unrest  that  cannot  be  quieted 
except  as  there  is  given  to  it  some  fitting  state  of 
fixed  expression.  And  in  doing  this  the  artist's  hand 
is  guided  by  the  inner  eye  of  reason  intent  on  this 
created  or  adopted  ideal. 

Even  so  with  the  inspired  Messenger  from  heaven. 
He  must  have  the  divine  idea  in  clear  contemplation, 
and  as  it  must  be  no  .original  of  his  own,  but  wholly 


THE  WORK   OF   THE   SPIRIT.  269 

that  which  Jesus  has  embodied  already  for  him  in 
some  experience  of  his  life,  these  facts  of  Christ's 
originating  must  be  exactly  imparted  to  him.  The 
event  must  have  been  once  witnessed  and  then  accu- 
rately recalled,  and  the  meaning  intended  unmistaken- 
ly  disclosed,  and  for  this  "  the  inspiration  of  the  Spirit 
must  give  him  understanding,"  and  set  in  clear  insight 
the  mind  and  will  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  With  such 
clear  importation  of  the  quick  and  stirring  vision, 
there  rises  the  irrepressible  impulse  to  communicate 
it.  It  is  as  "  a  burning  fire  shut  up  in  his  bones,"  and 
the  uneasiness  of  forbearing  wearies  so  greatly  that 
he  cannot  stay  the  expressing.1  And  in  this  com- 
municating he  must  be  guided  as  unerringly  as  in 
apprehending,  so  that  the  very  received  Idea  shall  be 
lodged  in  the  literal  record.  As  in  the  case  of  Moses 
with  the  Tabernacle  and  its  sacred  furniture  it  must 
be  made  "  after  the  pattern  which  was  shown  thee 
in  the  mount." 

For  all  this  the  Holy  Spirit  works  in  the  mind, 
effectually  securing  that  mind  freely  to  accomplish 
just  what  in  the  inspiration  is  intended  —  clear  posses- 
sion of  the  truth  and  correct  expression  of  it.  The 
power  of  Jesus  Christ  still  inheres  in  his  living  ex- 
perience, as  divinely  communicated  to  the  mind  of  the 
Evangelist,  both  of  deed  and  word,  and  their  "  spirit 
and  life  "  rouses  him  to  his  work  of  recording,  and 
then  goes  into  his  record  to  quicken  future  readers ; 
but  while  thus  recording,  he  needs  the  constant 

1  Jer.  xx.  9. 


270  DISPENSATION  OP   THE  SPIRIT. 

present  Spirit  directly  working  on  his  mind,  to 
quicken  every  faculty,  that  it  may  take  truth  accu- 
rately ;  to  stimulate  to  intense  urgency,  that  it  may 
write  promptly ;  and  then  to  keep  the  intensified  vision 
on  the  imparted  pattern,  that  it  may  copy  exactly  the 
heavenly  meaning.  In  this  way  the  inspired  man 
works  in  entire  freedom,  while  the  Spirit  gets  the 
work  done,  as  he  intends,  without  error. 

Truth  so  expressed  is  no  merely  honest  human  record 
of  what  is  sensibly  or  studiedly  apprehended,  just  as 
all  carefully  written  profane  history  is ;  a  sacred 
power  is  here  superintending  the  whole  transaction 
for  its  own  purpose,  and  making  the  record,  though 
freely  written,  yet  so  written  as  the  superintending 
Spirit  designed  it  should  be.  One  in  his  free  charac- 
teristic mode  of  expression  gives  his  peculiarly  marked 
revelation ;  another  gives  his  spontaneous  record  of 
what  has  been  vivid  in  his  mind  ;  but  the  Holy  Spirit 
has  so  wrought  on  each  as  to  get  from  all  just  the 
sacred  Book  he  purposed. 

Any  mind  in  any  age  may  be  influenced  by  theHoly 
Spirit  to  sharper  insight  and  intenser  zeal  in  express- 
ing, and  more  clear  and  effective  communication  of  his 
message,  and  for  this  the  good  man,  and  especially  the 
gospel  minister,  may  earnestly  and  believingly  pray ; 
but  such  assisted  message  cannot  claim  the  authority 
of  plenary  inspiration  without  the  attesting  super- 
natural signs  which  must  convince  others  that  God 
has  sent  him.  No  one  may  arrogate  for  himself,  nor 


THE  WORK   OP  THE  SPIRIT.  271 

may  others  claim  for  him,  the  prerogative  of  infalli- 
bility without  the  seal  of  supernatural  powers. 

2.  THE  WORK  OP  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  IN  MIRACLES.  — 
If  philosophy  can  only  logically  judge  from  experi- 
ence, any  valid  conclusion  of  miraculous  occurrences 
is  impossible.  No  experience  can  then  reach  beyond 
nature,  and  nothing  can  be  known  out  of  nature  that 
can  interfere  with  nature;  and  any  strange  occur- 
rences which  may  come  into  experience  must  be  just 
as  much  of  nature  as  the  ordinary  onflow  of  succes- 
sive events.  Indeed,  from  mere  experience  can  be 
deduced  no  laws  of  nature  to  be  miraculously  sub- 
verted ;  all  phenomenal  changes  are  mere  facts  per- 
ceived, and  the  order  of  occurrence  as  marked  a  fact 
as  the  phenomena  themselves  and  their  changes,  and 
no  experienced  invariable  order  can  be  logically 
raised  above  fact,  and  made  to  be  law  ;  and  all  assump- 
tions of  necessary  connections  in  experience,  because 
nature  itself  has  necessary  connections,  rest  solely 
on  the  habit  which  events  have  taken  on,  and  which 
they  may  at  any  time  break  up.  It  is  only  when  we 
recognize  an  Absolute  Keason,  regulating  experience 
through  a  regulated  series  of  events,  that  we  come 
to  any  valid  knowledge  of  fixed  connections  in  nature 
from  the  control  of  reason  put  into  nature,  and  thus 
making  nature  the  subject  of  law,  and  a  legitimate  field 
for  philosophy.  As  the  creature  of  reason,  and  subject 
to  reason,  nature  may  have  outside  interferences,  and 
newly  introduced  events  into  its  old  order  whenever 


272  DISPENSATION   OF   THE   SPIRIT. 

reason  itself  may  demand  it.  And  such  is  the  meaning 
of  a  miracle,  viz.,  an  interference  in  nature  by  the 
Author  of  nature,  when  he  has  reason  for  it. 

And  now,  the  whole  redemptive  work  for  hu- 
manity is  supernatural  ;  as  much  above  nature,  and 
from  a,  source  out  of  nature,  as  was  the  origination  of 
nature  itself  j  and  the  carrying  on  of  such  a  work  in 
nature  must,  in  varied  ways,  reasonably  interfere  with 
and  designedly  make  changes  in  the  orderly  connec- 
tions of  nature.  When  such  an  interference  as  only 
the  Author  of  nature  can  effect  is  wrought  in  nature, 
to  give  his  own  sanction  to  a  message  or  messenger  as- 
suming to  come  from  him,  then  is  the  occasion  reason- 
able, and  the  accredited  authority  valid.  But  the 
condition  of  the  interposition  of  divine  power  is 
essential  to  such  validity.  An  animal  interferes  in 
one  part  with  nature  when  ho  overcomes  gravity,  and 
makes  a  weight  move  up  hill ;  but  animal  sensibility 
is  nature,  and  the  motive  to  move  the  weight  has 
been  some  appeal  to  sentient  nature,  and  thus  as 
much  one  part  of  nature  interfering  with  another 
part,  as  when  the  force  of  falling  water  or  condensed 
steam  moves  machinery.  There  is  here  no  introduc- 
tion of  power  from  beyond  nature.  Still  further,  a 
man,  as  rational,  may  overrule  sense,  and  act  from 
reason  in  taste,  philosophy,  morals,  or  religion,  and  so 
work  on  nature,  and  make  changes  in  nature  that 
originate  in  a  source  wholly  beyond  nature ;  and  thus 
human  interferences  in  nature  are  oftentimes  com- 
pletely supernatural ;  but  such  human  changes  can 


THE  WORK   OF  THE  SPIRIT.  273 

give  no  valid  accrediting  to  any  assumed  authority 
from  heaven,  and  so  these  man-made  changes  are 
properly  no  miracles.  Even  magical  enchantments, 
and  satanic  "  lying  wonders,"  are  no  attesting  mir- 
acles ;  but  to  give  valid  warrant,  the  attestation  must 
be  superhuman,  supersatanic,  even  divine ;  just  as 
Moses'  rod  devoured  the  serpents  which  Egyptian 
magicians  exhibited,  and  Paul  dispossessed  the  pytho- 
ness of  her  "  spirit  of  divination."  When  that  which 
only  God  can  do  is  truly  done  in  nature,  to  give  his 
own  authority  to  his  own  commissioned  ministers,  then 
is  the  occasion  reasonable  for  the  miraculous  inter- 
position, and  the  clear  interposition  valid  for  the 
claims  of  a  divine  commission.  So  true  prophecy  is 
a  miracle  of  foreknowledge';  and  reading  the  heart,  a 
miracle  of  "  discerning  spirits  ;  "  and  dividing  the  sea, 
or  raising  the  dead,  a  miracle  of  omnipotence  j  but  the 
reasonable  occasions  can  seldom  only  occur,  for  the 
frequent  repetition  of  divine  interferences  miracu- 
lously must  soon  subvert  the  very  end  designed  j 
but  on  reasonable  occasions,  human  agents  may  do 
truly  divine  deeds. 

But  conditional  that  man  should  be  a  miracle-worker, 
is  special  faith  in  the  impartation  to  him  of  a  divine 
power.  No  man  could  do  the  mighty  work  unless  he 
had  the  peculiar  faith ;  and  the  genuine  faith,  though 
small  in  degree,  secures  the  possession  of  the  power. 
"  If  ye  had  faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard-seed,  ye  might 
say  unto  this  sycamine-tree,  Be  thou  plucked  up  by 
the  roots,  and  be  thou  planted  in  the  sea;  and  it 
18 


274  DISPENSATION   OF   THE   SPIRIT. 

should  obey  you."  1  And  the  exercise  of  this  faith 
was  secured  by  the  inworking  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
upon  the  human  mind.  Many  cases  of  Old  Testament 
miracles  had  occurred,  and  the  apostles  in  Christ's 
day  wrought  miracles,  and  all  from  an  inworking  prin- 
ciple of  faith  which  the  Holy  Spirit  had  quickened  in 
them ;  but  the  abundant  and  effective  attestation  of 
divine  authority  for  human  ambassadors  from  God 
was  after  the  ascension  of  the  Saviour  and  the  de- 
scent of  the  Spirit  at  Pentecost.  This  was  one  part 
of  the  power  the  disciples  waited  at  Jerusalem  for.2 
The  inward  trust  prompted  the  expecting  of  the  en- 
ergizing, and  the  divine  efficiency  accompanied  the 
human  act,  and  the  miraculous  result  followed.  This 
faith  could  not  be,  except  as  grounded  in  a  divine 
promise,  and  influenced  by  a  divine  presence ;  and 
hence  the  human  working  of  miracles  can  be  only  in 
an  age  and  place  divinely  appointed  and  rationally  ap- 
proved, and  not  at  the  caprice  of  human  curiosity  or 
selfish  interest.  At  times  the  faith  requisite  for  the 
exigency  came  only  by  special  "  prayer  and  fasting,"  3 
and  sometimes  also  the  persons  to  be  miraculously 
helped  must  have  the  peculiar  faith;4  but  always  the 
presence  of  the  faith  availed  to  secure  the  miraculous 
interposition.  And  as  yet  further  to  be  noted,  the 
faith  available  for  working  the  miracle  was  not  that 
requisite  for  saving  the  soul,  since  even  men  of 
carnal  dispositions  and  disobedient  lives  have  worked 

1  Luke  xvii.  6 ;  Matt.  xxi.  21,  22.  8  Luke  xxiv.  49 ;  Acts  i.  8. 

3  Matt.  xvii.  20,  21.  4  Matt.  xiii.  68 ;  Acts  xiv.  9. 


THE  WORK   OF  THE  SPIRIT.  275 

miracles.  Balaam  prophesied,1  and  the  sons  of  the 
Pharisees  cast  out  devils,2  and  a  faith  that  may  re- 
move mountains  can  be  without  Christian  charity ; 3 
but  no  worker  of  miracles  in  Christ's  name,  though 
not  following  him,  could  lightly  speak  evil  of  him,  and 
was  thus  to  be  allowed  in  prosecuting  his  miraculous 
working  as,  so  far  at  least,  in  Christ's  interest.4 

So  the  canonical  Scriptures  stand,  attested  by  mir- 
acles from  the  Holy  Spirit  for  their  inspiration  and 
authority,  as  the  only  rule  infallible  for  faith  and  prac- 
tice ;  and  when  any  new  claims  of  infallibility  are 
made,  the  miraculous  seal  from  the  Holy  Ghost  can 
alone  fix  their  validity.  Such  accrediting  the  church 
and  world  have  needed,  and  have  had ;  but  the  need 
for  such  may  probably  never  again  occur. 

3.  THE  NECESSITY  FOR,  AND  THE  WORK  OF,  THE  HOLY 
SPIRIT  IN  REGENERATION.  —  When  our  first  parents 
fell,  they  took  on  a  disposition  to  the  ends  of  sense 
which  was  a  radical  perversion  and  depraving  of 
moral  character,  and  sure  permanently  to  be  per- 
petuated by  them  if  left  to  their  own  course ;  and 
still  further,  their  fall  so  vitiated  their  sentient  nature 
as  to  secure  its  universal  propagation  in  the  race,  and 
this  sentient  corruption  was  sure  to  induce  the  free 
moral  disposing  of  all  their  descendants,  upon  sense- 
gratification  as  end  of  life,  if  no  gracious  remedy  were 
provided.  Natural  vitiation  would  carry  with  it  uni- 

1  Num.  xxiv.  15-19.  2  Matt.  xii.  27. 

3  1  Cor.  xiii.  2.  4  Mark  ix.  38,  39. 


276  DISPENSATION  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

versal  free  moral  depravity,  if  God  himself  did  not 
help.  The  help  needed,  and  the  only  he]p  available, 
was  the  introducing  of  a  moral  power,  which  should 
secure  the  disposing  of  the  spirit  away  from  self- 
gratification  as  end  of  life  to  self-approbation,  and 
therein  attain  a  moral  character  which  God  could 
approve,  and  through  Christ's  mediation  could  meet 
with  his  favor.  This  change  of  the  character  which 
was  certain  to  follow  from  natural  birth,  when  se- 
cured by  God's  interposition,  was  known  as  the  "new 
birth,"  and  involved  within  it  the  conditions  of  re- 
pentance for  pardon,  and  of  faith  for  justification. 
Under  whatever  influence  secured,  the  disposing  of 
the  spirit  is  the  person's  own  agency,  either  sensual- 
ly or  spiritually,  and  solely  on. his  responsibility  ;  but 
having  bowed  in  bondage  to  sense,  and  become  "  car- 
nally-minded," the  human  spirit  will  persist  in  his 
carnal  disposing,  and  live  on  sensually  and  sinfully. 
"  The  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God,"  and  in  its 
persistent  carnality  "  cannot  be  subject  to  the  law  of 
God  ;  "  and  the  disposition  depraved,  the  entire  life  is 
perverse. 

And  now,  after  the  redemption-work  of  Christ,  lay- 
ing the  ground  for  pardon  and  justification,  the  grand 
condition  for  its  appropriation  to  any  is  this  new 
spiritual  birth ;  and  the  obstinate  guilty  resistance 
of  the  old  carnal  disposition  to  it,  and  the  yielding  in 
no  case  to  any  other  influence  than  the  direct  agency 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  carnal  mind,  make  the 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  a  necessity,  if  any  one  is  to 


THE  WORK   OF  THE  SPIRIT.  277 

be  "  born  again."  The  strength  of  the  depraved  dis- 
position is  manifest  in  many  ways.  Legal  authority 
may  press  guilt  and  awaken  remorse  and  fear  in  the 
perverse  spirit,  and  threaten  speedy  application  of 
deserved  penalty ;  yet  this  is  made  by  the  sinner 
rather  to  intensify  his  hatred  to  law  for  its  stern  re- 
straint, and  the  aggravation  of  its  carnal  lusting  by 
the  rebellious  heart,  and  the  pressure  of  law  exasper- 
ates rather  than  subdues  the  mind  to  God.  This  con- 
viction of  obligation  arid  guilt  must  be  awakened  by 
the  application  of  law,  but  if  the  authority  of  law  only 
be  applied  in  any  way,  the  disposition  of  the  rebel  will 
not  become  loyal  by  it. 

Then  appropriately  comes  the  application  of  the 
power  of  the  cross.  .  Here  is  a  ground  of  pardon 
from  penal  infliction,  and  a  righteousness  which  may 
stand  in  stead  of  the  obedience  the  sinner  should  have 
rendered,  and  the  stern  authority  of  law  may  still 
stand  without  the  sinner's  punishment,  and  in  the  loss 
of  his  personal  righteousness  ;  and  so  even  under  the 
pressure  of  law,  the  sinner  occupies  a  place  where 
peace  and  reconciliation  lie  open.  Yea,  still  much 
deeper  strikes  this  power  of  Jesus7  redemption.  It 
is  the  fruit  of  tenderest  pity  for  you,  and  kindest  com- 
passion; it  has  been  attained  through  deepest  self- 
humiliation  and  painful  self-denial  for  you.  The  lay- 
ing by  of  heavenly  glory  and  taking  your  humanity, 
and  suffering  the  shame  and  death  of  the  cross,  have 
all  been  his  for  your  sake ;  and  this  "  speaking  blood  " 
of  Calvary  pleads  with  tenderer  efficacy  for  submission 


278  DISPENSATION  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

and  reconciliation  than  the  stern  voice  of  command 
and  threatening.  And  yet  this  pleading  pity  and  pa- 
tient suffering  must  still  teach  as  deep  abhorrence  for 
sin,  and  as  strenuous  claim  for  a  disposition  set  on 
righteousness,  as  does  the  authority  of  law.  The  man 
must  come  back  with  a  new  disposition  in  spiritual 
integrity;  and  when  it  is  openly  seen  that  sense- 
gratification  as  end  of  life  must  be  wholly  renounced, 
and  self-serving  give  place  to  full-hearted  devotion 
for  God,  this  deeply  convicted  and  affected  soul  can, 
and  will,  put  away  all  soft  impressions,  and  cut  short 
all  sympathy  in  the  Saviour's  suffering,  and  forget  his 
compassion,  and  despise  his  love,  and  as  determinately 
as  before  push  his  own  way  on  in  carnal  gratification. 
He  will  not  only  hate  the  law,  but  will  resist  the  pow- 
er of  Christ  crucified,  and  smother  convictions  of  sin 
and  all  sympathetic  relentings  in  returning  sensual  in- 
dulgences. Praying  saints  and  pleading  friends  may 
all  add  their  affectionate  and  anxious  solicitations, 
and  before  the  strength  of  this  carnal  disposition,  all 
will  fail. 

The  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  on  such  as  he  sees 
reason  effectually  to  operate,  here  comes  in,  in  con- 
currence with  all  else  which  without  him  is  ineffec- 
tual. Face  to  face  with  the  human  spirit,  he  works 
directly  on  mind  in  his  own  distinct  and  peculiar  way, 
which,  so  far  as  our  insight  into  all  revealing  can  go, 
we  have  before  described,  and  wakes  the  life  and  in- 
tensifies the  energy  of  every  faculty.  Memory  is 
quickened  to  call  up  anew  past  sins,  and  mercies,  and 


THE  WORK   OF  THE  SPIRIT.  279 

persistent  neglect,  and  ingratitude,  and  the  soul  can- 
not shut  down  its  convictions  of  guilt  and  desert. 
Self-reproach,  and  conscious  claim,  and  short  opportu- 
nity lay  their  burdens  upon  the  spirit,  which  the  soul 
can  neither  put  down  nor  carry  along.  Old  sense- 
indulgences  cease  to  please,  and  from  no  quarter  comes 
any  peace  to  the  troubled  heart.  In  this  arrest  and 
suspension  of  all  joy,  the  Holy  Spirit  further  "  takes 
the  things  of  Christ  and  shows  them  "  to  the  soul  whose 
mental  eye  is  now  opened  to  see  the  suffering,  and 
mercy,  and  waiting  wish  to  receive,  and  longing  in- 
terest to  save ;  and  to  this  power  of  the  cross  he 
additionally  works  with  his  own  direct  power,  which 
knows  the  chords  to  touch,  and  how  intensely  to  make 
them  vibrate ;  and  so,  in  this  "  day  of  his  power," 
that  mind  becomes  "  willing,"  and  the  human  spirit 
now  as  freely  disposes  itself  towards  God  as  it  before 
did  towards  self-gratification.  Old  idols  are  discard- 
ed ;  a  new  master  is  taken ;  "  the  old  man  is  put  off," 
and  "  the  new  man  is  put  on,"  which  after  God  is 
created  in  righteousness  and  true  holiness.1  In  this 
new  disposing  is  the  new  life,  and  at  once  flow  oat 
new  affections  and  new  volitions.  "  Old  things  are 
passed  away ;  behold,  all  things  are  become  new ;  and 
all  things  are  of  God,  who  hath  reconciled  us  to  him- 
self by  Jesus  Christ."2 

When  we  speak  of  this  change  as  from  the  sinner's 
agency,  we  employ  terms  expressive  of  his  activity ; 
when  in  view  of  the  divine  agency,  we  speak  of  the 

1  Eph.  iv.  22-24.  2  2  Cor.  v.  17,  18. 


280  DISPENSATION  OP  THE  SPIRIT. 

sinner  as  acted  on ;  but  the  complete  change  effected 
includes  both  ;  and  the  active  "  conversion  "  is  also  the 
being  "  born  again,"  and  the  regeneration  is  in  no  way 
completed  but  in  the  new  disposing  of  the  man's  spirit 
under  the  working  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Henceforth, 
the  ongoing  is  in  a  new  direction,  and  the  life  has  a 
new  experience.  The  consciousness  when  the  change 
occurred  may  be  less  or  more  retained,  but  the  con- 
sciousness that  the  change  has  occurred  is  daily  to 
grow  clearer.  "  One  thing  I  know,  that  whereas  I 
was  blind,  now  I  see."1 

4.  THE  WORK  OP  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  IN  SANCTIFICA- 
TION.  —  Christian  life  begins  in  regeneration,  and  sub- 
sequently matures  through  the  natural  life.  The  new- 
born soul  must  not  merely  persist  in  holy  living,  but 
must  grow  in  holiness ;  gaining  intenser  devotion  and 
loyalty  to  God  by  the  discipline  of  daily  experience 
and  the  prayerful  cultivation  of  all  Christian  graces. 
The  physical  faculties  of  body  and  soul  may  augment 
by  age  and  experience  in  good  and  bad  men,  and 
doubtless  there  is  intellectual  and  emotional  growth 
of  faculty  in  an  angel ;  it  is  not,  however,  this  growth 
in  the  being  itself  of  the  agent  that  we  here  regard, 
but  the  growing  strength  in  the  spirit  and  disposition, 
and  increasing  energy  of  purpose  and  fervent  zeal 
in  all  good,  which  is  now  contemplated  as  involved 
in  Christian  living.  The  beginning  activity  of  the 
new-born  soul  is  never  in  full  maturity.  The  new 

1  John  ix.  25. 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  SPIRIT.  281 

disposition  is  never  as  full  and  fixed  on  God  and  truth 
as  it  should  be,  or  as  in  future  experience  it  must  be. 
Intruding  appetites  call  out  desultory  volitions  for 
sense-gratification,  and  difficulties  and  dangers  oftener 
daunt  and  discourage  than  they  ought,  and  tempta- 
tions and  crosses  are  borne  less  patiently  and  steadily 
than  is  right.  The  spiritual  control  must  grow  firmer, 
and  colliding  sense-inclinations  must  be  held. in  more 
complete  subjugation  to  the  will  of  God  than  the  first 
Christian  experience  ever  exhibits.  This  growing- 
energy  and  stability  of  the  new  disposition  in  regen- 
eration, and  which  gives  augmenting  integrity  of 
Christian  character,  is  what  we  here  mean  by  sanctifi- 
cation.  It  distinguishes  itself  from  other  Christian 
states  by  just  this  fact  of  growth.  Regeneration  be- 
gins Christian  life  j  sanctification  is  Christian  life  grow- 
ing. Pardon  is  official  remission  of  legal  penalty, 
justification  is  official  declaration  of  the  satisfying  of 
legal  precept,  and  adoption  is  official  admission  to 
God's  family ;  but  sauctification,  in  reference  to  each 
of  these  respectively,  is  less  and  less  desert  of  pen- 
alty, more  and  more  conformity  to  precept,  and 
increasing  filial  affection  and  obedience.  The  others 
are  complete  at  once  and  at  the  start;  sanctification 
ripens  on  till  the  presentation  "  without  spot  to  God." 
Aside  from  growth,  sanctification  has  other  peculiari- 
ties to  be  noted. 

The  work  is  within  the  human  spirit.  —  External 
conformity  of  life  is  not  it,  but  comes  from  it,  and  the 
former  may  be  without  the  latter.  So"  pharisaical 


282  DISPENSATION   OF   THE   SPIRIT. 

self-righteousness  may  constrain  the  outer  life  to  great 
exactness  in  religious  rites  and  ceremonies,  but  merely 
cleanses  and  whitens  the  outside,  leaving  the  inner 
defilement  unmitigated.  Ritualism  may  punctually 
observe  every  imposed  rite,  and  school  itself  in  bodily 
exercises  "  profiting  nothing,"  but "  he  is  not  a  Jew  who 
is  one  outwardly,  and  circumcision  is  of  the  heart."  l 
The  burden  of  the  prayer  which  is  to  shape  the  Chris- 
tian life  in  growing  sanctification  must  cry  with  the 
Psalmist,  "  Search  me,  O  God,  and  know  my  heart ;  try 
me  and  know  my  thoughts,  and  see  if  there  be  any  wick- 
ed way  in  me,  and  lead  me  in  the  way  everlasting."  2 
It  is  persevering.  —  From  the  reason  in  the  case,  the 
man  alone  considered,  perseverance  in  holiness  could 
not  beforehand  be  affirmed.  Adam  fell ;  some  angels 
fell ;  the  restored  sinner  is  freely  holy,  and  the  alter- 
native of  falling  away  is  fully  open.  But  the  reason 
of  the  case  is  far  otherwise  when  the  honor  and  power 
of  God  are  considered.  Tho  new  life  is  from  God,  and 
shall  he  begin  and  not  be  able  to  finish  ?  Shall  Satan 
pluck  his  redeemed  children  from  his  hand  ?  And  yet 
strongly  as  reason  may  affirm  that  God's  begun  work 
must  be  carried  on  to  its  consummation,  the  impor- 
tance of  the  doctrine  has  secured  for  it  God's  direct 
declaration  in  addition  to  speculative  reason.  Under 
inspiration  Paul  thus  reasons  :  "  For  if  when  we  were 
enemies  we  were  reconciled  to  God  by  the  death  of 
his  Son,  much  more  being  reconciled  we  shall  be  saved 
by  his  life."  3  And  again,  "  Being  confident  of  this 

1  Rom.  ii.  28,  29.  »  Ps.  cxxxix.  23,  24.  3  Bom.  v.  10. 


THE  WORK   OF  THE  SPIRIT.  283 

very  thing,  that  he  which  hath  begun  a  good  work 
within  you  will  perform  it  unto  the  day  of  Jesns 
Christ."  1  And  so  reason  all  the  inhabitants  of  heav- 
en, who  "  rejoice  more  over  one  sinner  that  repent- 
eth  than  over  ninety  and  nine  just  persons  which 
need  no  repentance."2  They  take  the  assurance  that 
true  repentance  is  persevering,  and  they  rejoice  un- 
questioningly  so  soon  as  it  begins.  Direct  declarations 
are  exceedingly  numerous  in  the  Bible,  and  probably 
no  doctrine  is  more  repeatedly  asserted  than  that  of 
persevering  sanctification.  u  Whoso  liveth  and  be- 
lieveth  in  me  shall  never  die."  3  "  Whosoever  drink- 
eth  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give  him  shall  never 
thirst ;  but  the  water  that  I  shall  give  him  shall  be  in 
him  a  well  of  water  springing  up  into  everlasting 
life."4  "After  that  ye  believed,  ye  were  sealed  with 
that  Holy  Spirit  of  promise  which  is  the  earnest  of 
your  inheritance."  5 

Those  texts  asserting  perdition  if  one  falls  away 
are  the  stronger  modes  of  asserting  that  the  saint  will 
not  fall,  since  so  improbable  a  consequence  cannot 
have  its  occasion.  Just  as  in  Paul's  hypothetical  dec- 
laration, "  Though  we  or  an  angel  from  heaven  preach 
any  other  gospel,  let  him  be  accursed,"6  was  no  ad- 
mission that  apostles  and  angels  would  preach  an- 
other gospel,  but  rather  the  curse  if  they  should,  was 
its  greatest  improbability;  and  so  with  this  other 

1  Phil.  i.  6.  2  Luke  xv.  7.  3  John  xi.  26. 

4  John  iv.  14.  6  Eph.  i.  13,  14.  6  Gal.  i.  8. 


284  DISPENSATION '  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

declaration,  "  For  it  is  impossible  for  those  who  were 
once  enlightened,  and  have  tasted  of  the  heavenly 
gift,  &c.,  if  they  shall  fall  away,  to  renew  them  again 
to  repentance."  l  It  means  not  that  such  experienced 
saints  shall  fall,  but  rather  that  the  impracticability  of 
renewing  them  again,  if  they  did,  was  the  strongest 
expression  of  its  improbability.  None  who  finally 
perish  were  ever  saints,  for  of  the  best  of  such  Christ 
says  he  "never  knew  them."2  And  John  says, 
"  They  went  out  from  us,  but  they  were  not  of  us."  3 

Sanctification  will  be  perfected  at  death.  —  Different 
notions  of  perfection  have  occasioned  different  opin- 
ions of  complete  sanctification  in  this  life.  One  may 
deem  his  own  state  perfect,  which  another  sees  to  be 
very  imperfect.  The  new  disposition  may  be  sincere 
in  end  and  aim,  and  truly  towards  God  and  righteous- 
ness, but  the  sincere  change  is  not,  as  such,  evidence 
that  the  disposing  is  "  with  all  the  heart,  mind,  and 
strength."  That  strength  of  disposition  which  has 
kept  sense  in  good  subjection  for  a  time,  so  that  the 
man  may  not  have  been  conscious  of  sin,  may  still  be 
very  imperfect  and  fall  into  grievous  sins  in  other 
trials  at  other  times.  Perfection  in  faith  and  love,  so 
as  properly  to  Jbe  complete  sanctification,  must  be  so 
whole-souled  that  no  trial  shall  overcome,  and  no  temp- 
tation lead  astray.  This  ought  so  to  be  in  all  cases, 
at  all  times,  and  a  failure  to  stand  so  firmly  at  all 
times  is  at  the  responsibility  of  the  sinner.  So  firm 
every  Christian  should  be,  and  hence  it  is  possible  for 

1  Heb.  vi.  4-6.  2  Matt.  vii.  23.  3  1  John  ij.  19. 


THE   WORK   OF   THE   SPIRIT.  285 

him  to  be  ;  but  possibility  and  duty  are  not  evidences 
that  the  fact  yet  is.  The  inquiry  is,  will  such  perfec- 
tion be  till  after  death  ? 

No  present  consciousness  of  overcoming  strength 
can  be  consciousness  of  strength  which  shall  always 
overcome.  No  possible  present  experience  can  be  the 
ground  on  which  to  determine  all  future  experience, 
even  in  cases  of  entire  liberty  and  responsibility.  It 
will  not,  thus,  be  right  for  any  one  to  assume  that  he 
now  has  such  perfect  sanctification.  A.\l/  probability 
is  against  him,  and  the  decision  of  revelation  is 
squarely  on  the  other  side.  Sinless  perfection  has 
been  in  no  human  experience  but  in  the  man  Christ 
Jesus.  The  Lord's  Prayer  is  meant  for  all  living,  and 
it  makes  confession  of  sin.  Paul  .proves,  from  the 
Old  Testament  Scriptures,  "  that  all,  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles, are  under  sin." 1  And  John  affirms  that  "  if  we 
say  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves,  and  the  truth 
is  not  in  us."  2  And  Solomon  of  old  affirmed,  "  There 
is  not  a  just  man  on  earth  that  doeth  good  and  sin- 
neth  not."3 

But  at  death,  we  are  informed,  all  sin  passes  away, 
and  complete  sanctification  reigns.  Not  because  a 
completely  sanctified  man*  could  not  longer  live,  do 
we  put  perfection  to  be  at  death ;  nor  is  it  because 
death  has  itself  a  sanctifying  efficacy ;  but,  dropping 
the  body  of  sense  and  retaining  only  the  spiritual 
body,  and  coming  into  direct  communion  with  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  whole  soul  comes  into  complete  and 

1  Rom.  iii.  9.  2  1  John  i.  8.  3  Eccl.  vii.  20. 


286  DISPENSATION   OF   THE   SPIRIT. 

ecstatic  consecration  and  beatitude.  Nothing  within 
hinders,  and  nothing  without  defiles,  and  even  the 
coming  resurrection  body  is  wholly  incorruptible.1 

5.  ALL  THE  WORK  OF  THE  HOLY  GHOST  is  IN  FULL 
SOVEREIGNTY.  —  The  Holy  Ghost  has  been  sent  of  the 
Father  and  of  the  Son,  and  executes  his  commission 
as  third  person  in  his  own  conscious  voluntariness ; 
and  thus  the  regeneration  and  sanctification  of  sin- 
ners have,  in  their  procuring,  the  agencies  of  all  the 
personalities  in  the  Godhead  concurrently  operating, 
and  the  whole  work  is  in  the  absolute  sovereignty  of 
the  Deity.  Sovereignty  is  not  arbitrary  purpose  with- 
out reason,  but  purpose  wholly  in  the  end  of  reason. 
What  the  Holy  Spirit  does  is  determined  in  its  abso- 
lute reasonableness.  It  accords  with  his  reason;  it 
satisfies  his  reason ;  it  is  absolved  from  all  other  inter- 
ests than  reason ;  and  this  makes  the  action  to  be  in 
pure  sovereignty.  He  chooses  among  sinners  with 
the  end  of  reason  in  view,  and  so  his  election  is  in 
sovereignty,  and  all  is  the  same  as  to  say  that  the  ulti- 
mate is  his  own  excellency  or  glory.  The  operation 
of  the  Spirit  in  saving  men  comes  in  under  these 
following  conditions :  The  whole  race  were  in  a  hope- 
less state.  Jesus'  incarnation  and  death  opened 
redemption  for  all.  God  would  have  all  freely  accept 
this  salvation.  Man's  perverse  disposition  universally 
rejects  the  offered  salvation.  Some  effectual  agency 
must  just  here  come  in,  or  the  redemptive  sacrifice 

1  1  Cor.  xv.  42-44 ;  Rev.  xxi.  27. 


THE  WORK   OF  THE  SPIRIT.  287 

utterly  fails.  And  as,  when  God  would  not  have  Jew- 
ish offerings,  the  Saviour  said,  "  Lo,  I  come  to  do  thy 
will,  0  my  God,"  so  when  all  human  souls  reject,  the 
Spirit  is  sent  "  to  convince  of  sin,  of  righteousness, 
and  of  judgment."  He  convicts,  converts,  and  sanc- 
tifies men  according  to  the  divine  will.  He  does  just 
what  in  the  whole  case  is  reasonable  should  be  done. 
As  already  seen,  his  work  on  the  mind  is  a  moral 
power,  and  not  mechanical  force ;  and  he  executes  his 
own  purpose  through  the  freedom  of  the  human 
spirit. 

How,  then,  it  may  be  asked,  does  he  secure  the  sal- 
vation of  any?  The  answer  is,  that  his  work  on 
mind,  in  quickening  and  rousing  every  faculty,  secures 
the  sinful  spirit's  working  in  the  change  from  sense- 
disposing  to  spiritual-disposing.  The  old  disposition 
on  sensual  gratification  becomes  the  new  disposition 
on  spiritual  approbation.  If  he  so  turn  some  freely, 
it  may  be  further  asked,  Why  not  turn  more  ?  Why 
not  save  all  ?  The  answer  comes  from  the  very  being  of 
the  Absolute  Reason  in  his  sovereignty,  that  something 
higher  must  be  regarded  than  human  salvation.  That 
must  be  secured,  if  at  all,  in  a  way  that  shall  consist 
altogether  with  right  and  reason,  and  to  save  other,  or 
more,  will  require  action  which  somewhere  must  vio- 
late reasonable  claims,  and  be  doing  wrong.  If  sin- 
ners, more  or  all,  will  themselves  come,  they  may  and 
welcome.  But  if  they  will  not,  and  the  Spirit  must 
work  on  them  for  their  disposing,  then  must  he  guide 
his  work  by  perpetual  regard  to  its  universal  reason- 


288  DISPENSATION   OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

ableness,  Tightness,  respect  for  his  own  excellency's 
sake.  He  so  does  this,  that  in  keeping  to  what  is  "  good 
in  his  sight/'  he  forever  shuts  off  all  just  complaint, 
and  secures  coming  universal  assent  to  his  integrity.1 
What  is  done  by  the  Spirit  in  electing  in  time  had  the 
same  reason  for  the  purpose  in  eternity.2  So  with 
election  to  eternal  life ;  it  is  direct,  and  in  the  sover- 
eignty of  Absolute  Reason,  to  the  end  that  the  elect- 
ed be  secured  in  holiness.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
election  to  eternal  death,  which  is  the  doctrine  of  rep- 
robation, must  not  be  viewed  in  the  same  way  as 
a  direct  and  eternally  designed  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  There  is  no  direct,  designed  influence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  secure  and  perpetuate  a  depraved  dis- 
position. The  Holy  Spirit  must  needs  work  upon  de- 
praved hearts  if  they  are  to  be  renewed,  and  he  does 
this  to  the  end  and  in  the  way  of  its  eternal  reasonable- 
ness :  and  so  doing,  he  finds  such  as  it  would  be  unrea- 
sonable he  ever  should  have  chosen,  and  who  must  be 
left  in  their  own  determined  disloyalty,  and  their  final 
rejection  is  of  their  own  procuring.  To  each  of  such 
determined  rejecters  of  Jesus  and  his  offers  must  come 
the  time  when  longer  waiting  shall  be  unreasonable, 
dishonorable  to  God,  and  inviting,  to  universal  disre- 
spect of  the  Spirit's  authority ;  and  at  such  time  all  fur- 
ther gracious  striving  must  cease.  With  some,  this  may 
be  before  life  closes,  and  as  incorrigibly  "joined  to  their 
idols,"  they  are  "  let  alone."  And  in  all  other  cases, 

1  Isa.  v.  4 ;  Matt.  xi.  26 ;  Rom.  iii.  19. 
*  Eph.  i.  4 ;  2  Thess.  ii.  13. 


THE  WORK   OF  THE  SPIRIT.  289 

the  divine  striving  must  terminate  with  the  natural 
life.  The  end  of  the  Spirit's  work  is  a  new  spiritual 
disposition  controlling  all  carnal  inclination,  and  which 
must  be  in  the  day  of  fleshly  probation.  When  the 
sinner  is  cut  down  by  death,  it  must  be  as  with  the 
fruitless  tree,  pruned  a  while,  but  when  proved  hope- 
lessly barren,  it  is  cut  down,  to  lie  as  it  falls.  No 
culture  succeeds  with  the  sinner  in  the  absence  of 
divine  influence,  and  with  it  some  only  become  new- 
born, while  others  reject  and  resist  all  that  it  is  right 
the  Spirit  should  do  for  them,  and  they  are  necessa- 
rily lost  as  their  own  destroyers. 

So  the  dispensation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  will  last,  and 
his  work  extend  over  the  ages,  till  all  which  may  be 
done  by  him  for  human  salvation  will  have  been  ex- 
hausted. The  gospel  will  be  preached,  and  the  mis- 
sionary sent,  to  all  nations,  and  converts  be  made  in 
all  lands,  and  the  word  of  life  and  the  church  and  its 
ordinance's  be  given  to  all  people.  Ancient  prophecy, 
and  revealed  promise  and  purpose  of  God,  shall  have 
their  complete  fulfilment,  when  also  the  Spirit's  work 
shall  be  finished,  and  all  that  God's  plan  of  redemption 
can  effect  for  human  conversion  and  recovery  to  spir- 
itual life,  under  the  righteously  applied  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  will  have  been  secured ;  and  then  the  last 
things  must  occur  in  the  closing  of  human  history. 
We  do  not  need  to  trace  the  course  of  Christian  eccle- 
siastical history  in  detail  up  to  the  present  time,  nor  fi 
attempt  to  settle  where  in  the  process  of  prophetic 
fulfilment  our  age  stands.  We  only  need  to  know  the 
19 


290  DISPENSATION  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

Holy  Ghost  will  preside  over  and  guide  the  church, 
and  show  the  things  of  Christ  to  her  members,  and 
convince  the  world  of  Christ's  true  Messiahship  "to 
the  glory  of  the  Father,"  till  his  second  coming. 

We  may  well  believe,  from  the  increased  mission- 
ary zeal  and  prayer  of  the  church,  and  the  Christian 
enterprise  of  the  age,  and  the  faith  and  expectation 
of  Christians,  that  we  are  near  to  auspicious  events, 
and  extensive  changes  for  good  to  mankind.  One 
wide-spread  iniquity  after  another  is  attacked  and 
abolished,  and  the  hope  and  courage  of  good  men,  not- 
withstanding prevalent  infidelity  and  abounding  ini- 
quity, were  never  so  high  and  strong  as  now.  The 
nations  of  the  world  are  to  become  the  one  kingdom  of 
the  Redeemer,  and  in  his  own  time  he  shall  come  and 
stretch  his  sceptre  over  them. 


LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION.  291 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE   LAST    THINGS   IN  THE  REDEMPTION  OF 
HUMANITY. 

IN  the  interest  of  the  Absolute  Reason  himself  it 
behooved  him  to  people  this  earth  with  human  be- 
ings, constituted  in  the  union  of  sense  and  spirit; 
and  so  constituted,  the  fair  trial  for  the  control  of  the 
spirit  over  sense  became  also  a  claim  of  reason.  This 
trial,  we  have  found,  eventuated  in  the  progenitors  of 
the  race  voluntarily  subjecting  the  spirit  to  the  bond- 
age of  sense,  and  which  so  vitiated  the  sentient  na- 
ture as  to  insure  the  disposing  of  the  spirit  to  the 
ends  of  sense  in  all  their  posterity.  A  gracious  plan 
of  Redemption  then  opened  a  second  probation  for 
man,  in  full  satisfaction  with  every  claim  of  reason 
and  under  stronger  influences  for  spiritual  integrity 
than  in  the  first  probation ;  and  with  an  assurance 
that  the  Redeemer  should  have  a  seed  whose  service 
should  satisfy  him  for  all  his  sacrifice.  We  have  fol- 
lowed the  history  of  humanity  through  this  gracious 
probation,  "  founded  on  better  promises/'  under  the 
dispensations  of  the  Son,  and  then  of  the  Holy  Spirit ; 
and  now,  as  the  mediatorial  work  is  to  close,  the 


292  LAST  THINGS   IN  REDEMPTION. 

issues  must  be  as  accordant  with  reason  as  the  whole 
process  has  been.  The  Universe  must  know  that  all 
has  been  rightly  ordered. 

From  the  reason  in  the  case  itself,  the  whole  proba- 
tion of  man  must  pass  while  the  spirit  is  in  union  with 
the  flesh,  since  the  end  of  the  probation  is  to  bring 
the  body  in  subjection  to  the  spirit  j  but  a  state  of 
retribution  necessarily  involves  a  change  in  the  mode 
of  being.  "  Flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the  king- 
dom of  God,  neither  doth  corruption  inherit  incorrup- 
tion,"  and  yet  the  change  in  the  mode  of  existence 
must  admit  of  full  conscious  identity  and  personal 
individuality  in  this  passing  from  trial  to  final  award. 
What  our  speculation  has  already  attained  will  enable 
us  intelligently  to  follow  the  conscious  experience  of 
humanity  over  from  a  gracious  probation  to  a  final 
retribution,  and  to  clearly  note  the  Last  Things  in  the 
closing  mediation  which  opens  into  direct  face-to-face 
beholding.  As  in  the  history  thus  far  we  have  kept 
our  insight  constantly  to  the  facts  of  nature  and  reve- 
lation, so  in  what  is  to  come  we  must  carefully  note 
the  few  but  emphatic  annunciations  of  the  word  of 
God,  as  the  grand  source  of  light  and  authority  in 
searching  for  and  establishing  the  truth  and  doctrine 
of  a  carefully  considered  Eschatology.  Reason  can 
read  the  facts  which  are  to  close  time  and  open  eter- 
nity only  in  God's  revelation ;  but  such  revelation  is 
a  sealed  book  to  sense,  and  has  no  meaning  but  for  a 
spiritual  discernment. 


VIEW   OF  HUMAN  DEATH.  293 


SECTION  I. 

SPECULATIVE  VIEW  OF  HUMAN  DEATH. 

HUMAN  probation  terminates  in  death.  The  first 
trial  and  fall  would  have  eventuated  in  eternal  death, 
as  originally  threatened,  but  for  the  merciful  inter- 
position of  a  redemptive  plan,  and  on  the  ground  of 
which  a  second  state  of  probation  was  secured.  It 
behooved  God  to  indicate  his  displeasure  for  the  first 
sin  in  lasting  consequences  through  the  ages,  and  in 
the  delay  of  the  original  penalty,  among  other  items 
of  the  divine  disapprobation  was  the  curse  of  tem- 
poral death.  "  Dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shalt 
thou  return."  In  some  sense  the  animal  dies  as  truly 
as  man,  and  yet  in  the  animal  kingdom  death  has 
reigned  perpetually  from  before  the  creation  and  fall 
of  man,  and  was  thus  neither  a  result  of  man's  sin, 
nor  a  curse  following  any  moral  probation.  Death  to 
the  brute  is  something  quite  other  than  death  to  man. 
The  brute  was  designed  to  be  mortal,  but  man's  origi- 
nal immortality  was  both  indicated  and  secured  by 
his  free  access  to  "  the  tree  of  life,"  while  on  his  fall 
the  indication  and  certainty  of  coming  death  to  him 
was  in  the  barring  up  the  way  to  the  tree  of  immor- 
tality. It  was  a  curse  to  him  consequent  upon  his 


294  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

sin,  and  when  it  occurs  it  terminates  for  him  his  new 
state  of  probation.  The  opportunity  of  subduing  ap- 
petite to  the  governing  spiritual  disposition  passes, 
and  the  way  opens  for  final  retribution  in  a  new  state 
of  being  appropriate  for  it.  In  some  respects  man's 
death  and  dissolution  is  like  that  of  animals,  but  in  re- 
ality it  essentially  differs  from  all  other  forms  of  dying. 

1.  ALL  DEATH  DIFFERS  FROM  NATURAL  DECOMPOSI- 
TION. —  In  nature  there  is  perpetual  alteration  as  sub- 
stitution of  one  thing  in  the  place  of  another,  and  also 
continual    change   as   modification   going  on   in   the 
same  thing.     The  fluid  stream  congeals  to  a  solid, 
or  passes  utterly  away  in  evaporation,  but  in  such 
change  there  is  no  death.     The  mechanical  forces  in 
nature  are  ever   combining  and  dissolving,  but  na- 
ture's forces  are  in  constant  conservation,  and  from 
nature  nothing  dies  out.     Death  in  any  form  is  more 
than  chemical  decomposition,  for  in  no  chemical  or 
crystallizing  combinations  has  there  been  life. 

2.  IN  THE  VEGETABLE  KINGDOM  is  THE  LOWEST  LIFE, 

AND  HENCE  THE  SIMPLEST   FORM  OF  DEATH.  —  The  plant 

has  been  built  up  by  the  life-instinct,  and  organized 
according  to  the  specific  type  in  the  ends  to  which 
the  original  want  refers  ;  and  through  all  the  vegeta- 
ble kingdom  the  life-power  which  builds  and  inhabits 
and  uses  the  organism  is  instinctive  only,  going  out 
to  its  end,  with  never  a  return  upon  its  agency  in 
self-recognition.  It  has  no  capabilities  for  concentrat- 


VIEW  OP  HUMAN  DEATH.  295 

ing  its  activity  in  any  point,  where  the  activities 
might  meet  in  self-feeling.  Superinduced  upon  ethe- 
real force,  as  is  the  life-want,  for  the  end  of  assimila- 
tion and  combining  of  material  forces  into  its  own 
corporeity,  it  uses  the  ethereal  force  for  that  end 
alone,  and  never  organizes  its  combinations  in  any 
capacity  for  conscious  activity.  In  its  original  want, 
it  has  no  such  typical  end  as  attaining  sentiency,  or 
conscious  agency.  Hence,  when  it  has  exhausted 
itself  in  assimilations  and  reproductions,  its  organism 
dissolves,  and  the  life-want  departs  from  it.  The  con- 
tinued organism  was  the  individual  plant,  or  tree, 
during  its  continuance ;  and  when  the  organism  is 
gone,  the  individual  is  lost  forever.  The  plant  so 
lives,  and  in  dissolving  dies ;  and  that  plant  has  no 
reviving.  The  life-want,  separate  from  the  old  organ- 
ism in  the  propagation  of  a  new  plant  by  sex-genera- 
tion, goes  on  in  its  new  organism  as  a  new  individual ; 
but  when  the  organism  itself  dissolves,  the  life-want 
has  no  individual  manifestation.  Its  history  ceases 
with  the  organism  it  constructs ;  and  such  history  is 
only  for  another,  for  it  never  finds  nor  leaves  any  con- 
scious experience.  We  can  say  nothing  of  the  life- 
want,  independently  of  its  working  in  the  end  of  an 
individual  body,  and  thus  plant-death  is  individual 
plant-dissolution. 

3.  IN  THE  ANIMAL  KINGDOM  THERE  is  SENTIENT  CON- 
SCIOUSNESS, AND  THUS  A  DEATH  OP  SENSATION.  —  The 
assimilating  agency,  building  and  perpetuating  the 


296  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

animal  organism,  is  as  purely  instinctive  as  that 
which  builds  up  the  plant;  the  conscious  sensation 
comes  after  the  organizing  instinct  has  done  its 
work.  But  that  instinct  has  originally  an  end  in 
its  construction,  beyond  that  which  builds  the  plant. 
It  works  for  .  an  organism,  in  which  it  may  come 
to  itself  in  conscious  recognition.  It  adds  to  its 
organization  a  fixed  centralization,  and  thus  makes 
occasion  for  complete  circulation  about  and  through 
the  fixed  points  where  its  agency  may  come  in  upon 
itself.  Its  peculiarity  is  an  organism  of  nervous  irri- 
tability, with  its  ganglionic  centres,  and  outlying  af- 
ferent and  efferent  filamentary  communications.  The 
incoming  report  from  the  exterior  to  the  ganglion 
gives  opportunity  for  reaction  in  sensation,  and  this 
again  is  occasion  for  an  answer  to  the  same  in  some 
conscious  form  of  execution.  The  central  ganglion 
has  a  point  of  reciprocity,  where  action  to  and  action 
from  may  have  mutual  meeting,  and  come  into  com- 
munion, and  so  be  felt  by  the  one  irritable  life-organ* 
And  when  this  nervous  organism  is  complicated  with 
many  ganglia,  and  all  these  nerve-centres  have  their 
co-ordinating  sensorium,  and  in  this  a  prime  ganglion 
of  all  ganglia,  we  have  animal  life,  competent  to  feel 
its  own  agency,  and  direct  that  agency  again  from  its 
own  feeling. 

But  this  nerve  organism  is  the  necessary  condition 
for  sentient  activity.  Only  through  it  is  there  a  con- 
scious appetite,  and  a  conscious  executive  in  its  grati- 
fication; and  when  the  nervous  organism  dissolves, 


VIEW   OP  HUMAN  DEATH.  297 

and  ganglionic  centres  and  co-ordinating  sensorinm 
all  fall  in  pieces,  the  sentient  life  dies  in  the  same 
stroke  which  dashes  down  the  system  with  its  minis- 
tering members.  The  living  instinct  not  only  ceases 
working  in  assimilating  and  incorporating,  as  in  the 
death  of  a  plant,  but  much  more  ;  the  whole  work  of 
recognized  self-feeling,  and  active  self-gratifying,  dies 
in  the  same  organic  dissolution.  Just  as  in  the  plant 
the  individual  is  lost  in  death,  so  here,  both  instinctive 
life  and  sentient  consciousness  together  go  out.  and 
the  conscious  sentient  individual  is  no  more. 

4.  HUMAN  DEATH  LEAVES  THE  SPIRIT  STILL  IMMOR- 
TAL. —  Man  does  not  live,  nor  can  man  die,  as  does 
the  brute.  To  him  the  identity  and  individuality 
are  retained  in  and  through  death.  He  has  an  outer 
body  of  flesh,  like  the  animal,  i-n  which  sense  and  sex 
distinctions  and  natural  affections  have  their  source ; 
and  this  may  be  dissolved  and  pass  away  like  the 
brute  body,  when  it  has  subserved  its  designed  end. 
But  this  body  of  "  the  earth,  earthy  (choikos)"  l  has 
its  substantial  base  of  material  forces,  which  the 
claims  of  the  spiritual  in  man  will  not  permit  shall  at 
any  time  be  dissolved.  The  ethereal  life-instinct  has 
assimilated  matter  to  itself  by  infusing  its  own  vital 
energies,  and  made  the  matter  to  be  living  and 
sentient  nature,  just  as  the  animal  body;  but  this 
ethereal-instinct  and  sentient-consciousness  has  the 
still  higher  endowment  of  rationality  in  man,  making 

1  1  Cor.  xv.  47. 


298  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

him  to  be  free  personality,  and  responsible  for  the 
character  of  the  disposition  he  forms ;  and  this  will 
not  allow  the  substantial  basis  of  his  sentient  nature 
to  pass  away.  The  interest  of  the  spirit  must  hold 
the  sentient  soul  in  immortality,  and  that  must  hold  a 
material  body  together  for  itself  in  perpetual  unity. 
And  this  has  been  abundantly  confirmed  in  the  revela- 
tion God  has  given,  and  the  meaning  which  the  reason 
reads  in  the  written  word. 

The  divine  inspiration  sending  life  into  the  nostrils 
of  the  first  man  sent,  moreover,  a  rational  spirit  in 
the  Maker's  image  along  with  it.  The  living  soul 
which  man  thus  became  was  other  than  the  sentient 
nature  of  the  brute.  The  sense  became  imbued  with 
spirit,  and  while  the  spirit'3  own  abode  was  in  its 
retained  ethereal  forces,  it  also  infused  its  agency 
through  the  animal  sense,  making  this  to  be  persistent 
human  soul,  the  tabernacle  for  which  was  the  substan- 
tial material  forces  that  was  the  basis  of  the  animal 
body.  There  is  thus  the  occasion  for  comprehending 
the  Scripture  analysis  of  man's  whole  being.  The 
ethereal  forces  held  as  the  pure  temple  of  the  spirit, 
constitute  Paul's  pneumatikon,  translated  "  spiritual 
body ;  " 1  and  the  working  of  the  spirit  through  the 
sentient  soul,  and  holding  permanently  about  the  soul 
the  material  basis  of  the  animal  structure,  constitutes 
Paul's  psucliikon,  translated  less  discriminatingly,  in 
the  same  text,  "  natural  body."  The  first  is  the  body 
of  the  pneuma ;  the  second  is  the  body  of  the  psuche ; 

1  1  Cor.  xv.  44. 


VIEW   OF   HUMAN  DEATH.  299 

and  then  over  and  beside  this  is  the  choikoSj  as  the 
"  earthy,"  1  and  which  is  the  mere  animal  nature  that 
perishes.  The  pneumatikon  is  the  inner  penetralium 
of  ethereal  forces  which  the  spirit  directly  controls 
and  uses ;  the  psuchikon  is  the  permanently  held 
material  forces  which  the  sentient  soul  occupies,  and 
on  which  the  changing  elements  of  the  bodily  mem- 
bers gather  and  dissolve,  and  so  linked-  by  the  spirit, 
the  soul  and  soul-body  are  made  co-existent  and  immor- 
tal with  the  spirit  and  the  spirit-body. 

But  this  soul  and  spirit,  psuche  and  pneuma,  each 
of  which  the  man  has,  but  neither  of  which  the  brute 
has,  and  which  during  probation  have  been  in  living 
connection,  are  now  in  the  closing  of  probation  to  be 
sundered;  and  in  this  separation  of  soul  and  spirit 
beyond  the  dissolving  of  the  animal  body,  is  the 
peculiarity  of  human  death.  "  The  word  of  God," 
through  the  probationary  period,  has  been  "  as  a  sharp 
two-edged  sword  "  in  its  living  truth,  discriminating 
accurately  between  appetites  and  obligations,  utilities 
and  duties,  gratifications  of  sense  and  approbations 
of  conscience,  and  has  thus  intellectually  "  divided 
asunder  the  soul  and  spirit ;  "  2  but  now,  that  which 
has  been  intelligibly  so  clearly  distinguished  is  to 
become  an  actual  dissevering,  and  by  the  stroke  of 
death,  soul  and  spirit  are  literally  to  be  divided, 
and  their  long  intimate  union  violently  parted.  There 
is  to  be  all  the  going  out  of  life  from  the  animal  body, 
and  the  dissolution  of  its  elements,  as  with  the  perish- 

1  1  Cor.  xv.  47.  2  Heb.  iv.  12. 


300  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

ing  beast ;  and  so  the  choikos,  as  earthy  body  of  flesh, 
and  blood,  and  bones,  will  decompose,  and  such  sense- 
want  and  animal  appetite  as  have  been  subservient  to 
nourishment,  and  organic  growth,  and  reproduction, 
and  sympathizing  interaction,  pass  away  in  the  ele- 
mentary disintegration ;  but  the  soul  and  soul-body  as 
the  basis  on  which  the  mere  sentient  animality  has 
temporarily  rested  will  survive,  and  not  the  dissolu- 
tions of  the  animal,  but  the  sunderings  of  the  psychi- 
cal and  the  spiritual  will  be  that  which  gives  to 
human  death  its  pang,  and  both  to  soul  and  spirit 
their  dread  and  dismay  in  the  terrible  execution  of 
the  primeval  curse  for  sensual  depravity.  The  soul 
and  the  soul-body  go  their  way  together,  and  the 
spirit  and  the  spiritual  body  go  their  way  to  God  who 
gave  the  spirit  to  the  ethereal  living  forces.  The 
real  death  for  man  is  in  the  parting  of  soul  and  spirit, 
while  both  are  separately  perpetuated. 


SECTION  II. 

THE  INTERMEDIATE   STATE. 

THE  individuality  of  existence  in  both  the  vegeta- 
ble and  animal  kingdoms  is  in  the  persistence  of  the 
life  instinct  in  holding  the  organism  in  combination. 
The  dissolution  of  the  organism  is  the  final  loss  of  the 


INTERMEDIATE  STATE.  301 

individual.  The  individuality  of  man  is  in  the  per- 
petuity of  the  rational  spirit  to  hold  the  ethereal 
living  forces  together  as  its  spiritual  body,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  hold  the  sentient  life  perpetual  in  the 
assimilated  material  forces  as  the  psychical  body.  So 
long  and  so  far  as  the  spiritual  and  psychical  bodies 
stand  in  union,  there  is  complete  individuality ;  but 
at  death  this  union  is  interrupted,  and  in  so  far  there 
is  an  interference  with  the  human  individuality. 
Inasmuch  as  the  separation  at  death  is  repugnant 
to  both  soul  and  spirit,  and  reluctantly  endured,  it 
awakens  the  rational  anticipation  that  the  separation 
is  not  final  and  forever.  The  reason  of  the  case  opens 
a  view  in  which  is  the  requisition  for  a  reunion  that 
shall  be  permanent.  The  speculative  inquiry,  then, 
at  once  arises  respecting  the  condition  of  man  after 
death,  and  preceding  this  future  reunion  of  soul  and 
spirit.  Here  is  an  intermediate  state  for  man  :  what 
is  that  state  ?  and  the  experience  of  the  man  in  it  ? 

Revelation  gives  short  but  expressive  hints  in 
reference  to  such  experience,  while  it  is  full  and 
explicit  that  man  is  to  pass  such  an  intermediate  state 
of  existence.  These  revealed  facts  must  guide  the 
speculation,  but  they  determine  directly  nothing  of 
locality,  and  little  of  personal  agency  and  experience ; 
and  yet,  what  is  said  involves  much  that  a  careful 
insight  may  clearly  gain  relatively  to  individual  com- 
munion with  God  and  other  spirits,  and  in  the  future 
of  inner  personal  consciousness.  The  Scripture  no- 
tices not  merely  consist  with,  but  quite  fully  confirm, 


302  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

the  speculative  attainments  hitherto  made,  since  these 
declarations  cannot  apply  but  to  such  peculiar  modes 
of  being. 

1.  THE  CONSCIOUS  INDIVIDUALITY  AFTER  DEATH. — 
The  animal  body  of  flesh  and  blood  dissolves  at  death, 
and  were  there  nothing  in  man  but  his  sentient  con- 
sciousness, his  individuality  would  be  as  the  brute 
which  perisheth.  But  the  hold  of  the  spiritual  upon 
the  sensual  has  immortalized  it,  and  the  substantial 
forces  in  which  it  abides.  There  is  no  longer  occa- 
sion for  mastication  and  digestion,  heart  pulsation 
and  circulation,  respiration,  reproduction,  and  recuper- 
ation of  wasted  forces ;  all  organs  designed  for  such 
functions  in  the  probationary  state  dissolve,  and  their 
material  forces  are  no  longer  retained  in  the  individu- 
ality. But  the  basis  of  all  sentient  life  and  conscious- 
ness in  the  substantial  material  forces  on  which  the 
fleshly  organism  has  rested,  still  remains  undecom- 
posed  and  perfect.  In  these  essential  forces  of  the 
material  body  abide  the  undying  life  and  sentiency 
of  the  individual,  and  all  the  record  of  his  previous 
sense-history  and  experience  is  left  indelible  within 
and  upon  them.  The  spirit  has  so  imbued  the  sense 
with  rationality  and  responsibility,  that  it  cannot  be 
allowed  to  fade  away,  nor  its  essential  material  organ- 
ism to  fall  in  pieces.  So  much  of  the  spirit  inheres 
in  the  sentient  soul  and  the  psychical  body,  that  it 
individualizes  and  immortalizes  them,  and  they  cannot 
n  dissolve  as  the  flesh  falls  back  to  dust.  There  is  a 


INTERMEDIATE  STATE.  303 

spiritual  interest  in  them,  and  a  future  demand  for 
them,  which  must  keep  them  entire  in  their  identity. 
And  yet  in  their  separation  from  the  spiritual,  they 
are  not  so  held  in  it  as  to  partake  of  its  personality. 
The  sentient  soul  in  its  indissoluble  body  is  separated 
from  the  personal  reason  in  its  spiritual  body,  and 
were  it  active  in  a  conscious  experience,  it  could  be 
only  for  sense-gratifications,  and  using  its  material 
body  so  far  as  it  might  for  sentient  happiness.  Such 
activity  would  have  no  rational  importance,  and  its 
life  may  be  left  where  revelation  leaves  it,  safely 
abiding  the  coming  morn  when  reason  shall  call 
loudly  for  it.  Subject  as  it  is  to  all  the  mundane 
forces,  they  cannot  hurt,  but  only  keep  it  in  the 
world  where  it  had  acted  till  the  spirit  departed f 
from  it. 

But  the  spirit,  separate  in  death  from  the  soul  and 
its  psychical  body,  has  its  body  of  living  light,  and  in 
it  is  a  free  citizen  of  the  ethereal  universe.  It  is 
purely  personal,  and  its  own  disposing,  accordingly 
as  formed  in  probation,  governs  the  spiritual  body  in 
which  separately  it  now  abides.  It  uses  the  living 
light  of  its  own  body  in  working  on  and  through  the 
light  about  it  at  its  pleasure.  It  changes  the  equili- 
brations of  diremption  in  its  own  forces  to  any  meas- 
ures of  excess  on  any  side,  and  so  has  locomotion  in 
the  ethereal  universe  at  will,  in  any  direction,  and 
with  any  measure  of  velocity.  The  inner  reason  is 
identical  in  the  same  forces,  and  so  individualizes 
them  in  perpetually  holding  them  in  one ;  and  such 


304  LAST   THINGS   IN   REDEMPTION. 

spiritual  individual  is  the  identical  personality,  once 
linked  to  and  working  in  and  through  its  own  soul- 
body  in  its  state  of  probation,  but  which  at  death  it 
left  behind  in  the  terrestrial  sphere  where  the  trial 
together  had  been .  made,  now  traversing  the^  uni- 
verse through  any  field  of  light  it  pleases.  Its  per- 
sonal individuality  is  in  and  with  the  spiritual  body, 
but  it  has  its  rational  interest  in  and  claims  upon  the 
sentient  soul  in  the  soul-body,  and  recognizes  that 
this  soul  is,  and  is  alone,  for  it,  and  not  another. 

v  2.  THE  SPIRIT-WORLD.  —  The  material  worlds  move 
in  their  places  in  their  respective  systems,  and  each 
must  have  for  its  own  inhabitants  the  periods  of  time 
measured  from  its  own  revolutions ;  but  the  spiritual 
body  is  held  by  no  single  world,  and  is  not  to  be  con- 
ceived as  limited  within  any  definite  locality.  To  it 
there  are  no  material  nor  spacial  restrictions./  The 
universal  ethereal  sphere  is  open  to  the  spirit  in  its 
spiritual  body.  The  light  is  everywhere  diffused, 
and  wherever  a  spirit  in  its  ethereal  body  may  be,  the 
universe  is  in  panorama  about  him.  The  ages  from 
all  particular  worlds,  as  standing  in  their  particular 
histories,  may  be  estimated  by  him,  and  disregarding 
all  special  times  of  particular  worlds,  the  absolute  uni- 
versal time,  as  determined  by  the  moving  of  all  sys- 
tems about  the  universal  centre,  is  the  ultimate  meas- 
ure to  which  he  must  subject  all  partial  particular 
periods.  Every  spirit,  good  and  bad,  is  let  out  in  full 
freedom  into  the  common  ethereal  universe.  The 


INTERMEDIATE   STATE.  305 

material  worlds  are  held  in  their  places  in  the  pe- 
ripheral portion  of  the  universal  sphere,  while  the  in- 
terior region  is  pure  ether  surrounding  the  central 
creating  and  managing  source  of  all.  The  spiritual 
body  is  susceptible  to  all  ethereal  action,  and  its  com- 
munications for  conscious  recognition  are  from  all 
quarters  and  through  all  light-vibrations.  What  we 
have  learned  of  the  universe,  from  the  work  of  Crea- 
tor and  Creation,  opens  at  once  to  our  comprehension  . 
the  outer  freedom  and  expanse  of  spiritual  existences. 

3.  ALL  RESTRICTION  is  FROM  PERSONAL  DISPOSITION. 
—  Spiritual  life  is  essentially  free  life.  The  universe 
is  open  to  it.  But  each  man  has  his  controlling  dis- 
position, fixed  in  the  period  .of  his  probation,  and  his 
very  freedom  determines  his  communions  and  exclu- 
sions. There  are  no  outer  bars,  and  only  inner  likes 
and  dislikes.  If  reason's  end  has  been  taken  as  the 
guide  of  all  action,  then  nothing  hinders  in  all  that 
reason  approves.  If  self-indulgence  has  been  taken 
as  end  of  life,  then  has  the  spirit  lost  its  rationality 

and   become   unreason,  and   shut  itself  off  from  all 

\s 

rational  interests.  The  person  knows  his  own  dis- 
posing, and  the  spiritual  body  is  no  disguise  to 
another's  discerning,  and  thus  every  man's  disposi- 
tion limits  for  him  his  moving  and  his  resting.  Rea- 
son's rule  is  reason's  right,  and  the  righteous  will 
be  where  the  approbation  of  conscience  determines. 
Self-gratification  rejects  all  right,  and  thus  subjects 
its  own  spirit  to  perpetual  disapprobation.  This  fixes 
20 


306  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

the  separating  gulf  between  the  good  and  bad,  and 
shuts  off  all  annoyances  from  the  one  side  and  all  al- 
leviations from  the  other.  .  The  righteous  can  make 
no  ministrations  to  the  wicked,  and  the  wicked  can 
give  no  disturbances  to  the  righteous.  They  have 
all  passed  into  the  one  invisible  state,  from  mortals, 
known  as  Hades ;  yet  such  invisible  world  to  mortals 
has  no  local  restrictions,  but  the  more  effectual  moral 
separations. 

4.  THERE  is  NO  OPPORTUNITY  FOR  PURGATORIAL  EX- 
PERIENCES. —  So  far  as  all  moral  change  in  purifica- 
tion of  spirit  from  selfish  purposes  is  concerned,  the 
one  influence  of  Christ's  redemption  by  the  Spirit's 
application  gives  all  that  can  be  effectual,  and  that 
belonged  to  the  probationary  state  which  has  now 
gone  by.  And  so  far  as  withdrawing  from  the  in- 
fluences of  carnal  appetites  is  concerned,  the  dissolu- 
tion by  death  has  made  a  complete  purgation,  and 
the  earthy  body  of  flesh  and  bone  has  been  wholly  left 
behind.  The  disposition  acquired  and  retained  fixes 
the  character,  and  no  experiences  in  the  intermedi- 
ate state  change  that,  nor  can  any  discipline  there 
cleanse  the  spirit  from  its  impurities.  "  He  who  is 
holy  will  be  holy  still,  and  he  who  is  filthy  will  be 
filthy  still."  Nothing  can  here  be  done  to  the  spirit 
or  the  spiritual  body  to  cleanse  from  any  pollution ; 
the  moral  stains  are  all  from  the  spirit's  own  agency, 
and  the  fountain  of  its  activity  in  the  permanent  dis- 
position remains  after  death  entirely  the  same. 


INTERMEDIATE  STATE.  307 

5.  THE  SPIRIT  AT  DEATH  GOES  TO  ITS  FINAL  HOME.  — 
The  intermediate  state  changes  for  a  permanent  state 
only  in  the  mode  of  existence  by  the  reunion  with 
the  soul,  but  the  home  is  unchanged.  The  dying 
thief  went  at  once  to  "  paradise/'  and  paradise  is  the 
"  third  heaven." 1  Stephen  expected  to  go,  at  death, 
to  heaven  as  he  saw  it  open.2  Jesus  Christ  is  in 
heaven,  but  saints  at  death  go  where  Christ  is.3  And 
saints  come  with  Christ  at  the  judgment.4  And  so 
also  in  John's  prophetic  vision.5  And  if  thus  the 
saints  at  death  go  at  once  to  heaven,  the  wicked  also, 
like  Judas,  go  to  their  "own  place."  It  is  not  a 
sound  conclusion,  that  somewhere  there  is  a  place  of 
two  apartments  for  the  dead,  which  will  be  emptied 
at  the  resurrection ;  but  the  open  universe  receives 
all  spiritual  bodies,  and  then  takes  back  again  the 
same  when  the  sentient  soul  is  reunited  to  its  own 
personality. 


1  Luke  xxiii.  43.     Confer  2  Cor.  xii.  2-4.  8  Acts  vii.  65-59. 

3  2  Cor.  v.  8 ;  Phil.  i.  23.  4  1  Thess.  iv.  14. 

8  Rev.  vii.  13-17. 


308  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 


SECTION  III. 

THE  RESURRECTION. 

THE  New  Testament  Scriptures  have  two  words 
expressive  of  the  resurrection ;  one  an  arousing,  as  if 
from  sleep,  and  the  other  a  standing  up  again,  as  if 
from  a  reclining  posture ;  the  latter  being  the  more 
frequent.  The  doctrine  means  more  than  restored 
consciousness  to  the  soul,  and'  implies  the  return  of 
the  spirit  to  the  body.  The  full  import  of  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine  of  the  resurrection  is,  a  raising  of  the 
bodies  of  the  dead,  and  a  reunion  of  each  with  its  own 


1.   THIS  IS  INDICATED  IN  THE  ANALOGIES   OF  NATURE. 

—  In  the  vegetable  kingdom,  the  vital  energy  has  its 
first  exhibition  in  the  seed,  but  it  attains  its  full  ma- 
turity only  through  dissolution.  "  The  blade,  then 
the  ear,  afterwards  the  full  corn  in  the  ear,"  all  come 
after  the  old  seed  has  passed  away  in  its  corruption. 
This  analogy  to  human  change  from  the  mortal  to  the 
immortal  was  early  observed.  In  reference  to  his 
own  death  Jesus  Christ  said,  "  Except  a  corn  of  wheat 
fall  into  the  ground  and  die,  it  abideth  alone ;  but  if 


GENEEAL   BESUEEECT10N.  309 

it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit." 1  And  so  the 
apostle  Paul :  "  That  which  thou  so  west  is  not  quick- 
ened except  it  die." 2  There  is  ever  the  passing 
through  this  form  of  death  by  the  seed,  in  its  develop- 
ment to  the  new  and  complete  plant ;  and  the  analogy 
not  merely  illustrates,  but  fairly  indicates,  the  resur- 
rection of  the  human  body,  which  "  is  sown  in  corrup- 
tion, and  raised  in  incorruption."  Human  death  is 
not  annihilation ;  something  of  the  old  passes  over 
from  the  former  state,  and  stands  out  again  in  a  new 
and  more  perfect  state  of  maturity,  and  the  two  are 
identified  in  one  individuality.  If  revelation  had  not 
used  the  analogy,  there  would  have  been  the  indica- 
tion of  man's  resurrection  in  the  germinating  plant 
from  the  dying  seed ;  and  this  Scripture  use  was  be- 
cause the  index  was  already  there. 

And  so,  in  some  forms  of  animal  transformation  to  a 
state  of  fuller  development,  we  have  equally  striking 
indications  of  man's  change  in  his  coming  resurrec- 
tion. The  worm  passes  into  its  chrysalis  form,  and 
lies  in  torpor,  out  of  which  it  emerges  and  lives  again 
in  vastly  augmented  beauty,  and  with  capacities  for  a 
new  experience,  into  which  it  could  not  before  enter. 
Aside  from  revelation,  the  thinking  mind  from  such 
suggestions  could  scarcely  help  rising  to  a  belief  in 
his  own  resurrection  to  a  wider  sphere  of  life  and 
activity. 

1  John  xii.  24.  2  1  Cor.  xv.  36. 


310  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

2.  MAN'S  INSTINCTIVE  ANTICIPATIONS  GIVE  PREMONI- 
TION  OF  HIS  RESURRECTION.  —  The  human  spirit  not 
merely  forecasts  its  own  immortality,  but  it  instinc- 
tively assumes  that  the  body  it  inhabits  will  again  be 
its  abode.     No  man  can  well  put  off  the  conviction 
that  his  body  is  more  to  him  than  common  dust,  and 
that  his  interest  in  it  must  be  perpetual  and  enduring. 
Hence  the  respect  in  all  ages  for  funereal  rites,  and 
reverential   regard   for   places   of   human   sepulture. 
Even  savage  tribes  carefully  bury  their  dead,  adorn- 
ing the  body,  and  accompanying  it  with  what  may 
minister  to  its  uses  in  its  future  blessed  abode.     An- 
cient people  costly  embalmed  the  dead  body,  to  pre- 
serve its  form,  and  others  purified  it  by  fire,  and  care- 
fully collected   in   precious   urns   the   indestructible 
ashes.      Such   instinctive    prompting   foretokens  the 
coming  event;  and  the  prophecy  uttered  in  nature 
carries  in  it  the  assurance  of  future  fulfilment.      Vitu- 
lus  percutit  fronte  inermis  —  and  the  butting  calf  is 
sure  to  have  the  future  horns.     Divine  precepts  regu- 
late the  human  premonitions,  but  they  neither  repress 
the  instinct  nor  forbid  its  working.     God  manifestly 
meant  that  man  should  regard  these  inward  teachings. 

3.  REASON  ESTABLISHES  A  CLAIM   TO   THE  REUNION 
OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT. — Essentially,  humanity  is  sense 
and  spirit.     In  this  complexity  it  has  been  tried  and 
fallen ;  and  as  sense  and  spirit,  the  human  has  had  re- 
demption, and  been  put  upon  its  second  probation. 
Under  the   gospel,  a   spiritual  disposition   has   been 


GENERAL   RESURRECTION.  311 

made,  and  the  character  formed,  either  in  the  subjec- 
tion of  sense  or  the  enslaving  of  spirit.     In  no  other 
manner  than  by  the  conflict  of  the   spirit  with  the 
flesh,  could  confirmed  virtue  and  permanent  integrity 
of  personal  character  be  attained ;  and  the  issue  in 
such  trial  must  be  fairly  joined,  and  the  result  must 
be  freely  settled  by  the  self-originated  act  of  the  indi- 
vidual.    When  the  first  pair  fell,  they  thereby  settled 
what  would  come  for  the  race.     And  when  a  gracious 
redemption  opened  a  new  probation,  the  issue  must 
again  be  individually  joined  and  freely  settled  by  a 
renewed  disposition  to  subject  the  sense  under  the 
influence  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  or  by  a  persistence  in 
carnal  servitude  in  spite  of  the  strivings  of  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  and  which  way  soever  the  trial  has  eventuated, 
the  sentient  body  and  the  spiritual  personality  have 
been  both  involved,  and  as  participating  in  the  proba- 
tion, they  should  also  participate  in  the  retribution. 
The  appropriate  awards  cannot  be  made,  but  as  the 
complex  humanity  still  exists  in  readiness  to  take  the 
gracious  blessing  or  the  deserved  punishment.     The 
same  body  must  be  present  with  the  spirit  it  once 
held,  or  that  which  in  reason  ought   to  be,  in  exe- 
cuted fact  still  cannot  be.    No  possible  alternative  can 
thus  rationally  be  interposed  to  the  fulfilment  of  the 
coming  universal  summons,  "  Arise,  ye  dead,  and  come 
to  judgment." 

4.   THE  AUTHORITY  OF  REVELATION  is  HERE  ULTI- 
MATELY CONCLUSIVE.  —  The  Old  Testament  is  less  ex- 


312  LAST   THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

plicit  than  the  New  in  its  declarations  of  a  resurrec- 
tion; yet  may  the  teachings  of  it  be  satisfactorily 
found  from  several  passages,  (rod  seems  to  have  re- 
vealed it  in  similar  language  to  both  Moses  and  Sam- 
uel :  «  I  kill  and  I  make  alive."  *  "  The  Lord  killeth 
and  maketh  alive ;  he  bringeth  down  to  the  grave, 
and  raiseth  up.'7  2  Job  speaks  doubtingly,  yet  a  pre- 
vailing faith  in  his  coming  resurrection  is  manifest. 
"  Man  dieth  and  wasteth  away ;  yea,  man  giveth  up 
the  ghost,  and  where  is  he  ?  Man  lieth  down,  and 
riseth  not ;  till  the  heavens  be  no  more,  they  shall  not 
awake,  nor  be  raised  out  of  their  sleep."  Yet  in  the 
end  he  expects  his  awaking.  "  Thou  shalt  call,  and  I 
will  answer  thee ;  thou  wilt  have  a  desire  to  the  work 
of  thine  hands." 3  David  also  was  assured  of  his 
own  resurrection  in  the  foreseen  resurrection  of  the 
crucified  Messiah.  "  My  flesh  shall  rest  in  hope.  For 
thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  hell ;  neither  wilt  thou 
suffer  thine  Holy  One  to  see  corruption."4  Daniel 
foretells  that  "  many  of  them  that  sleep  in  the  dust 
of  the  earth  shall  awake,  some  to  everlasting  life,  and 
some  to  shame  and  everlasting  contempt."5  And 
Hosea  represents  the  Lord  God  as  saying,  "  I  will  ran- 
som them  from  the  power  of  the  grave ;  I  will  redeem 
them  from  death ;  O  death,  I  will  be  thy  plagues  ;  0 
grave,  I  will  be  thy  destruction."6  But  all  this  is 
made  more  clear  by  what  the  New  Testament  affirms 
Old  Testament  people  believed.  "  They  desired  a 

1  Deut.  xxxii.  39.          2  1  Sam.  ii.  6.         3  Job  xiv.  10,  12,  15. 
4  Ps.  xvi.  9,  10.  5  Dan.  xii.  2.  6  Hosea  xiii.  14. 


GENERAL  RESURRECTION. 

^  /* 

better  country,  that  is,  a  heavenly;"  and^-"  Abraham 
believed  that  God  was  able  to  raise  up,  even  from  the 
dead."1  And  Paul  says  of  his  persecuting  Jewish 
brethren,  "  that  they  themselves  also  allow  that  there 
shall  be  a  resurrection  of  the  dead,  both  of  the  just 
and  unjust."  2  And  Martha  knew  her  brother  Lazarus 
"  shall  rise  again  in  the  resurrection  at  the  last  day."  3 

The  New  Testament  abounds  in  direct  declarations 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  in  full  measure 
"  brings  life  and  immortality  clearly  to  light :  "  a  few 
only  of  the  many  are  here  cited.  Jesus  Christ  affirms 
of  both  good  and  evil,  "  The  hour  is  coming  in  which 
all  that  are  in  their  graves  shall  hear  his  voice,  and 
shall  come  forth ;  they  that  have  done  good  unto  the 
resurrection  of  life,  and  they  that  have  done  evil 
unto  the  resurrection  of  damnation,"  4  Of  Christians 
Paul  says,  "  If  the  spirit  of  him  that  raised  up  Jesus 
from  the  dead  dwell  in  you.  he  that  raised  up  Christ 
from  the  dead  shall  also  quicken  your  mortal  bodies 
by  his  spirit  that  dwelleth  in  you."5  John,  in  the 
Revelation,  "  saw  the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand  be- 
fore God.  And  the  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were 
in  it,  and  death  and  hell  delivered  up  the  dead  which 
were  in  them."6 

As  Jesus  Christ  is  mediatorial  king,  so,  as  is  fit,  he 
is  the  direct  agent  in  calling  all  the  dead  from  their 
sleep.  "  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life ;  he  that 
believeth  in  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he 

1  Heb.  xi.  16-19.  2  Acts  xxiv.  15.  3  John  xi.  24. 

«  John  v.  28,  29.  5  Rom.  viii.  11.  6  Rev.  xx.  12,  13. 


314  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

live." l  "I  am  he  that  liveth,  and  was  dead ;  and  be- 
hold, I  am  alive  for  evermore,  amen;  and  have  the 
keys  of  hell  and  of  death."  2  It  is  not  to  be  correctly 
understood  that  the  resurrections  of  the  righteous  and 
of  the  wicked  are  at  separate  periods.  John  saw  "  the 
souls  "  of  the  martyrs  "  beheaded  for  the  witness  of 
Jesus,"  who  "  lived  and  reigned  with  Christ  a  thou- 
sand years,"  and  which  was  called  "  the  first  resurrec- 
tion ;  "  3  but  this  means  that  the  spirit  of  the  martyrs 
lives  in  the  millennium,  as  Elijah's  spirit  and  power 
lived  in  John  Baptist,  and  not  that  their  bodies  had 
been  seen  to  be  made  alive.  The  universal  represen- 
tation of  the  resurrection  otherwise  is,  that  it  is  one 
and  the  same  event  for  the  world  of  all  the  dead. 

5.  THERE  WILL  RE  A  SPECIAL  CHANGE  IN  THE  RES- 
URRECTION BODY.  —  The  living  at  the  time  of  the 
resurrection  are  not  to  "prevent,"  i.  e.,  go  to  Christ 
before,  "  them  which  are  asleep."  fl  For  the  Lord 
himself  shall  descend  from  heaven  with  a  shout,  with 
the  voice  of  the  archangel,  and  with  the  trump  of 
God ;  and  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first.  Then 
we  which. are  alive  and  remain  shall  be  caught  up  to- 
gether with  them  in  the  clouds,  to  meet  the  Lord  in 
the  air ;  and  so  shall  we  be  ever  with  the  Lord."4 
And  to  the  same  purport  is  the  apostle's  explanation 
of  the  "  mystery,"  that  "  we  shall  not  all  sleep,  but  we 
shall  all  be  changed.  In  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling 

1  John  xi.  25.  2  Rev.  i.  18.  3  Rev.  xx.  5. 

4  1  Thess.  iv.  15-17. 


GENERAL    RESURRECTION.  315 

of  an  eye,  at  the  last  trump,  the  dead  shall  be  raised 
incorruptible,  and  we  shall  be  changed.  For  this 
corruption  must  put  on  incorruption,  and  this  mortal 
must  put  on  immortality."1  The  manifest  order  of 
events,  in  the  one  transaction  of  transferring  the  dead 
and  living  to  their  spiritual  state,  is,  the  descent  of 
Christ,  the  sound  of  the  trump,  the  awaking  of  the 
dead,  the  instant  change  of  the  living  to  be  like  that 
of  the  raised  dead  j  and  so,  in  arrangement  and  result, 
the  whole  human  family  are  made  ready  for  the  judg- 
ment. 

In  what  this  change  consists,  the  Scripture  recog- 
nizes in  distinct  summary  declarations.  The  dissolu- 
ble elements  which  are  combined  in  the  flesh  and 
frame  of  the  body  fall  away  at  the  resurrection,  since 
"  flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God,"  2 
nor  has  a  spirit  "  flesh  and  bones."  3  So  the  organic 
arrangements  for  digestion  and  assimilation  are  left 
behind ;  for  while  "  belly  and  meats "  are  for  each 
other  here,  both  are  then  to  be  "  destroyed."  4  Sex- 
distinctions  and  relations  then  pass  away,  "  for  when 
they  shall  rise  from  the  dead,  they  neither  marry  nor 
are  given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels  which 
are  in  heaven."  5  "  The  corruptible  puts  on  incorrup- 
tion," and  the  natural  body  sown  is  raised  a  spiritual 
body,6  and  yet  the  spiritual  body  retains  still  its  hold 
on  the  sentient  soul,  and  as  that  was  at  death,  so  its 
moral  state  continues  after  the  resurrection,  since, 

1  1  Cor.  xv.  51-53.  2  1  Cor.  xv.  50.  3  Luke  xxiv.  39. 

4  1  Cor.  vi.  13.  6  Mark  xii.  25.  6  1  Cor.  xv.  42-44. 


316  LAST  THINGS' TN  REDEMPTION. 

when  that  time  is  at  hand,  "  He  that  is  unjust  is  still 
unjust,  he  that  is  filthy  is  still  filthy,  as  truly  as  he 
that  is  righteous  still  remains  righteous." x  And  so 
the  man  has  either  the  "  fleshly  mind  "  or  the  "  spirit- 
ual mind  "  controlling  all  his  eternal  experience. 

The  reason  of  the  case  also  determines  that  organic 
functions,  now  needed  and  there  needless,  will  be  ac- 
cordingly dispensed  with.  On  earth,  the  growth  and 
restoration  of  the  body  require  many  extensive  ma- 
terial arrangements.  A  great  proportion  of  the  body 
consists  of  that  which  ministers  to  the  nourishing  and 
perpetuating  the  body.  The  entire  physiology  of 
mastication,  digestion,  respiration,  circulation,  secre- 
tion, assimilation,  and  excretion,  relates  to  the  sup- 
ply of  new,  and  the  elimination  of  used-up  material. 
All  the  members  for  locomotion,  manual  ministration, 
and  organs  of  sense-perception,  are  adaptations  to  an 
earthly  state  of  being,  and  can  have  no  relevancy  to 
the  abode  of  the  resurrection-body.  All  media  of 
sex-generation,  and  reproduction,  and  alimentary  sus- 
tentation  for  infantile  life,  belong  to  the  world  of  hu- 
man probation,  and  have  ceased  forever  this  side  of 
the  world  for  human  retribution.  All  these  are  the 
corruptible  "flesh  and  blood,"  which  will  have  been 
dissolved  and  put  off  when  we  come  to  "  put  on  in- 
corruptiorj."  They  are  organic  combinations  of  as- 
similated elements,  which  have  rested  on  the  essential 
sub-forces  of  the  body  in  this  mortal  state ;  but  they 
utterly  fall  away  when  "  this  mortal  puts  on  immor- 
tality." These  sub-forces  of  the  body  have  in  them 

1  Rev.  xxii.  11. 


GENERAL   RESUERECTION.  317 

the  essential  sentiency  which  came  out  in  the  organic 
nerve-irritability,  but  in  the  spirit-world  are  open  to 
impressions  from  only  spiritual  adaptations. 

The  first  great  change  is  in  the  material  body,  from 
what,  as  given  by  the  apostle  Paul,  is  "  the  earthy  " 
to  the  purely  psychical  body.  The  psuchikon  puts 
off  all  earthy  organic  elements,  which  had  been  super- 
imposed upon  it  for  the  ends  of  its  temporal  state,  and 
retains  only  the  essential  material  forces,  which  have 
been  the  permanently  balanced  basis  of  the  entire 
bodily  organism.  The  pure  psychical  body  is  the 
sentient  soul's  tabernacle,  when  all  the  ministering 
members  meant  only  for  this  life  have  been  dissolved 
and  passed  away,  leaving  these  fundamentally  com- 
bined forces  indissoluble  and  indestructible,  with  all 
the  soul's  sentient  capacity  abiding  in  the  fixed  body. 
And  this  change  is  thoroughly  completed  in  the  re- 
union with  it  of  the  pneumatihon,  or  spiritual  body, 
which  had  departed  from  it.  The  rational  spiritual 
energy  goes  through  and  combines  both  the  material 
and  ethereal,  making  the  whole  resurrection-body  to 
be  one,  and  henceforth  under  the  control  of  the  one 
spirit,  according  to  its  determined  disposition.  .  Here 
is,  thus,  the  same  sentient  soul,  the  same  rational 
spirit,  and  the  perduring  substance  of  the  same  liv- 
ing material  and  ethereal  body ;  making  the  identical 
and  individual  personality  which  dwelt  on  earth,  and 
formed  his  disposition  in  time,  now  fitted  to  take  the 
retributions  of  eternity.  Tne  past  is  in  memory,  the 
present  disposition  is  in  full  consciousness,  and  the 


318  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

accountable  being  now  stands  awaiting  the  coming 
issues  of  the  Final  Judgment. 

6.  THE  RESURRECTION  AS  PRESENTED  BY  THE  APOSTLE 
PAUL.  —  Prophets,  apostles,  evangelists,  and  the  Lord 
Jesus  speak  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body  as  a  cer- 
tainty, but  with  little  particularity  in  detail,  while 
the  circumstances  of  Paul's  ministry  lead  him  to  be 
earnest  and  minutely  exact  in  enforcing  and  teaching 
the  doctrine  quite  beyond  any  other  inspired  writer. 
The  incarnation  of  the  Lord  and  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead  body  were  specially  obnoxious  to  such  phi- 
losophers as  restricted  all  knowledge  within  experi- 
ence. The  whole  cultus  and  control  of  life  was  by 
two  eminent  Grecian  sects  of  philosophers  of  that  day 
derived  wholly  from  nature ;  either,  on  one  side,  seek- 
ing all  practicable  pleasure,  or,  on  the  other  side,  in- 
different to  either  pleasure  or  pain,  since  nature 
would  surely  send  both  ;  and  Paul's  missionary  life 
and  experience  in  Grecian  cities  necessarily  brought 
him  often  in  conflict  with  these  objectors  to  such 
spiritual  truths.  When  he  went  to  Athens  and 
preached  in  the  market,  these  new  doctrines  at 
once  provoked  opposition.  "  Certain  philosophers  of 
the  Epicureans  and  Stoics  encountered  him.  And 
some  said,  What  will  this  babbler  say?  and  others, 
He  seemeth  to  be  a  setter  forth  of  strange  gods,  be- 
cause he  preached  unto  them  Jesus  and  the  Resur- 
rection ; "  and  they  took  him  to  the  Areopagus  for 
further  discussion.1 

1  Acts  xvii.  18,  19. 


GENERAL   RESURRECTION.  319 

Timothy  was  sent  by  the  apostle  to  labor,  and  set  in 
order  churches,  among  the  same  class  of  cavillers  and 
disputers ;  and  in  the  last  part  of  his  First  Epistle 
to  Timothy,  Paul  very  strenuously  charges  him,  "  0 
Timothy,  keep  that  which  is  committed  to  thy  trust, 
avoiding  profane  and  vain  babblings,  and  oppositions 
of  science  falsely  so  called,  which  some  professing 
have  erred  concerning  the  faith."  J  And  the  repeti- 
tion of  the  charge  in  the  Second  Epistle,  with  similar 
but  more  pointed  and  explicit  terms,  explains  fully 
that  this  urgency  to  maintain  his  commission  means, 
that  he  strenuously  uphold  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
the  resurrection.  "  Shun  profane  and  vain  babblings, 
for  they  will  increase  to  more  ungodliness.  And  their 
word  will  eat  as  doth  a  canker ;  of  whom  is  Hymeneus 
and  Philetus/who  concerning  the  truth  have  erred, 
saying  the  resurrection  is  past  already,  and  overthrow 
the  faith  of  some."  2  The  "  oppositions,"  or  intrinsic 
contradictions,  which  such  sciolists  might  readily 
urge,  as  making  the  raising  of  the  same  body  an 
absurdity  from  its  perpetual  changes,  wide  'disper- 
sion of  particles,  and  perhaps  participation  in  the 
construction  of  other  bodies,  would  naturally  lead 
to  the  profane  and  vain  babblings,  which  were  to  be 
avoided  ;  but  the  true  and  important  doctrine  must 
be  held  as  standing  on  "  the  sure  foundation  of 
God." 

This  disputation,  among  false  scientists,  and  scepti- 
cism even  among  professed  disciples,  induced  Paul  not 

i 

1  1  Tim.  vi.  20,  21.  2  2  Tim.  ii.  16-18. 


320  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

only  to  enforce  the  doctrine  by  apostolic  authority,  but 
more  largely  and  philosophically  to  expound  its  mean- 
ing and  consistency  to  the  intelligent  apprehension  of 
his  converts.  The  church  of  Corinth  was  in  the  midst 
of  these  pretentious,  empirical  logicians,  and  one  long 
chapter  of  the  First  Epistle  to  this  church l  is  wholly 
devoted  to  the  defence  and  exposition  of  this  doctrine 
of  the  resurrection,  basing  it  upon  the  truth  of  Christ's 
resurrection,  and  then  meeting  empirical  objections 
by  higher  spiritual  instruction.  When  they  incredu- 
lously and  contemptuously  inquire,  "  How  are  the 
dead  raised  up?  and  with  what  body  do  they  come?'' 
Paul  in  effect  answers,  "  Get  a  little  wiser,  and  your 
logic  will  be  clearer."  Even  the  wheat-seed  dies  and 
comes  up  again  in  a  new  body  of  its  own ;  and  every 
seed  has  its  own  body,  which  it  renews  by  dying.  God 
gives  different  terrestrial  and  celestial  bodies  to  be  of 
different  grades  of  glory  as  it  has  pleased  him,  and 
to  man  he  has  given  a  natural  body  and  a  spiritual 
body ;  the  natural  body  is  sown  in  death,  and  comes 
up  a  spiritual  body  in  the  resurrection.  "  So  when 
this  corruptible  shall  have  put  on  incorruption,  and 
this  mortal  shall  have  put  on  immortality,"  the  doc- 
trio  e  will  have  its  highest  vindication,  for  "  then 
shall  death  be  swallowed  up  in  victory." 

And  another  most  difficult  portion  of  Scripture,2 
finds  in  its  application  to  this  Pauline  view  of  the 
saints'  resurrection  its  only  clear  exposition.  We 
give  our  commentary  in  a  very  general  paraphrase. 

1  1  Cor.  xv.  8  Kom.  viii.  18-23. 


GENERAL   RESURRECTION.  321 

—  The  sentient  part  of  humanity  is  for  the  present  con- 
tinually suffering,  but  it  is  truly  of  no  account  when 
compared  with  the  coming  glory.     For  this  "  creature," 
as  sentient  soul,  waits  in  expectation  "  for  the  manifes- 
tation of  the   sons  of  God."     For  the    sentient  soul 
was  made  subject  to  "  vanity,"  or  emptiness,  poverty, 
misery,  not  of  choice,  but  of  God's  appointment  for 
discipline  and  trial,  by  which  the  "  hope  "  opens  for 
deliverance  from  this  "  bondage  of  corruption  "  to  "  the 
glorious  liberty  "  of  Christian  sonship.     For  we  know 
that  the  animal  creation,  and  as  subject  to  the  prime- 
val curse  "  the  whole  creation,"  groans  and  travails 
in  pain  up  to  this  time.     Yea,  even  we   children  of 
God,  who  have  tasted  "  the  first  fruits  of  the  Spirit," 
even  we  groan  inwardly,  waiting  our  inheritance  in 
the  final  resurrection  and  "  redemption  of  our  body." 

—  This  is  Paul's  estimate  of  this  great  doctrine.     All 
suffering    and    subservient    nature   is    waiting   with 
earnest  longings   for  it,  and  all  redeemed  saints  are 
in  hasting  "  expectation  "   of  it.     To   them  creation 
shall  no  longer  be  a  mere  sense-show,  but  known  and 
used  in  its  essential  reality  ;  all  sense-infirmity,  weari- 
ness, sickness  and  pain,  will  have  forever  passed  away, 
and   both    sentient   soul   and   material   body  become 
spiritualized  in  a  blessed  immortality. 

7.  REVEALED  RESURRECTIONS  AND  TRANSLATIONS. — 

The  Scriptures  notice  a  number  of  cases  of  persons 

raised  from  the  dead,  and  also  of  some  translated  to 

the  world  of  spirits  without  dying,  and  it  is  desirable 

21 


322  LAST   THINGS   IN    REDEMPTION. 

to  note  what  bearing  these  instances  may  have  upon 
the  doctrine  of  the  general  resurrection. 

The  prominent  cases  of  raising  from  the  dead  are 
Elijah  recalling  the  spirit  in  the  case  of  the  widow  of 
Sarepta's  son ; ]  Elisha  restoring  to  life  the  Shunamite's 
son  ;  2  Jesus  raising  the  widow's  son,3  the  nobleman's 
son,4  the  synagogue  ruler's  daughter,5  Lazarus  ; 6  and 
Peter's  raising  Dorcas.7  These  cases  were  strong 
manifestations  of  God's  power  and  benevolence,  and 
bore  testimony  to  the  divine  mission  and  authority  of 
those  who  wrought  the  miracles,  as  in  other  cases  of 
supernatural  signs  and  wonders;  but  they  have  no 
special  import  in  confirmation  directly,  nor  as  afford- 
ing any  illustration  of  the  Resurrection  at  the  last 
day.  The  old  bodies  of  flesh  and  blood  were  re- 
animated, and  the  persons  restored  to  natural  life, 
and  were  again  to  pass  through  death,  as  before. 

Then  we  have  the  translation  of  Enoch,8  and  of 
Elijah ; 9  and  because  Moses  died  alone  with  God  on 
Nebo,10  and  appeared  in  glory  with  Elias  on  the  mount 
of  transfiguration,11  it  has  sometimes  been  taken  that 
he  was  removed  to  heaven,  though  the  record  is, 
that  the  Lord  "buried  him,"  but  no  one  knoweth 
of  his  sepulchre.  Such  cases  of  translation  without 
dying  have  this  bearing  upon  the  doctrine  of  the 
bodily  resurrection,  that  their  bodies  were  transferred 
to  the  eternal  state,  as  those  of  the  raised  dead  at  the 

1  1  Kings  xvii.  21,  22.  8  2  Kings  iv.  34,  35.         3  Luke  vii.  11-15. 

4  John  iv.  46-53.  5  Luke  viii.  49-56.  e  John  xi.  43,  44. 

7  Acts  ix.  40.  8  Gen.  v.  24;  Heb.  xi.  5. 

9  2  Kings  ii.  11.  10  Deut.  xxxiv.  5,  6.         "  Matt.  xvii.  3. 


GENERAL   RESURRECTION.  323 

last  day  will  be  ;  though  the  comparison  must  rather 
be  with  the  quick  and  great  change  the  living  will 
undergo  when  the  universal  dead  are  raised.  Cor- 
ruptible flesh  and  blood  fall  away,  and  only  the  sub- 
stantial forces  of  the  material  body  rise  with  the  spirit 
in  permanent  union. 

The  earthquake,  at  Jesus'  dying  hour  on  the  crossj 
broke  open  the  sepulchres  of  some  of  the  recent  dead 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  at  Jesus'  resurrection  "  many 
bodies  of  the  saints  which  slept  arose,  and  came  out 
of  their  graves,  and  went  into  the  holy  city,  and  ap- 
peared unto  many."  1  Here  seems  a  full  presage  of 
the  general  resurrection,  and  as  it  were  the  first  fruits 
of  Christ's  awaking  from  the  dead.  They  went  into 
Jerusalem  and  were  known  to  their  old  acquaint- 
ances ;  but  no  more  is  said  of  them.  The  probability 
is,  they  ascended  to  glory,  as  the  raised  saints  will  at 
the  final  resurrection.  The  indication  is  quite  strong 
that  a  raised  body  for  the  state  of  glory,  with  its 
corruptible  portion  removed,  will  still  possess  perma- 
nent material  forces  that  will  present  the  old  bodily 
likeness,  though  entirely  at  the  unresisting  control  of 
the  indwelling  spirit ;  and  the  same  may  also  be 
gathered  from  the  glorified  forms  on  the  mount  of 
transfiguration.2 

Jesus'  resurrection  would  seem  to  have  partaken  of 
both  a  reanimation  of  flesh  and  blood,  and  a  perma- 
nent reunion  of  soul  and  spirit.  His  resurrection 
was  to  be  established  before  the  living,  and  must  not 

1  Matt,  xxvii.  60-53.  2  Luke  ix.  28-36. 


324  LAST   THINGS   IN   REDEMPTION. 

only  be  visible,  but  tangible  and  audibly  communica- 
tive. "  His  flesh  saw  not  corruption,"  and  the  entire 
body  lived  again,  and  was  touched  and  handled ;  it 
spoke,  walked,  and  ate  ;  and  as  he  said, "  A  spirit  hath 
not  flesh  and  bones,  as  ye  see  me  have."  His  body, 
like  Lazarus'  body,  could  be  fully  identified  by  the 
living,  and  for  the  forty  days  after  his  resurrection  he 
would  seem  to  have  been  as  fully  in  the  flesh  as  before 
his  crucifixion.  But  that  body  was  not  to  die  again. 
The  human  spirit  was  reunited,  no  more  to  be  dis- 
solved ;  and  when  the  ascension  hour  arrived,  and 
the  body  went  up  from  the  mount  at  Bethany,  it  was 
changed  in  the  cloud  that  received  him  from  the 
corruptible  and  mortal  to  the  incorruptible  and  im- 
mortal, and  which  is  to  have  a  second  coming  in 
like  manner  as  this  first  ascending.  His  human  body 
went  to  the  right  hand  of  power,  a  truly  spiritual 
body  as  the  glorified  saints  shall  be. 


SECTION    IV. 

THE  FINAL  JUDGMENT. 

KEDEEMED  Humanity,  as  now  viewed,  has  finished  its 
second  probation  in  mortal  flesh,  and  raised  to  an  im- 
mortal reunion  of  soul  and  spirit  in  a  spiritual  body, 
awaits  the  final  Judgment.  The  fall  of  man  was  con- 
nected with  the  sin  of  angels,  and  all  moral  beings  have 


FINAL   JUDGMENT.  325 

an  interest  in  the  divine  manifestations  made  in  the 
work  of  redemption ;  the  intelligent  universe  must 
be  intensely  attentive  to  the  disclosures  and  issues 
of  the  last  mediatorial  official  function. 

1.  THE  DESIGN  OP  THE  FINAL  JUDGMENT.  —  The 
intermediate  state  has  occasioned  experiences  which 
have  given  full  disclosures  of  character  and  condition  : 
and  all  the  living,  in  their  entire  change  to  the  spirit- 
ual body,  have  come  into  full  consciousness  of  the 
disposition  they  have  settled  each  for  himself;  the 
last  judgment  is  not,  therefore,  needed  nor  designed 
for  making  any  new  discriminations  of  state  and 
affection  of  heart  towards  truth  and  God.  But  in 
the  wide  administration  of  the  divine  government, 
many  inscrutable  measures  have  been  taken  for  ful- 
filling eternal  purposes,  and  measures  of  justice  and 
judgment,  patience  and  favor,  have  been  so  often 
mysteriously  mingled,  that  it  has  been  impossible  for 
finite  spirits  to  comprehend  the  equity  of  many 
transactions ;  and  the  great  interposition  of  God  in 
human  flesh,  making  redemption  for  a  lost  race,  and 
requiring  many  sovereign  interpositions  of  providence 
and  interferences  of  divine  influence,  which  the 
consummation  of  God's  design  can  alone  clear  up ; 
all  must  now  be  reconciled  with  reason,  and  stand  out 
clear  in  conformity  with  righteousness  and  truth. 
Both  for  the  sovereign's  and  subject's  sake,  such  final 
and  universal  vindication  of  sovereign  authority  in 
its  dispensation  of  judgment  and  grace  is  important. 


326  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

The  new  basis  laid  for  human  probation,  the  entire 
system  of  doctrine  and  evangelical  ordinances,  and  all 
the  mediatorial  administration,  must  be  made  con- 
vincingly correct  and  just  to  every  conscience.  God 
will  be  justified  when  he  speaks,  and  clear  when  he 
judges  ;  every  mouth  stopped,  and  all  cavilling  dis- 
sent shown  to  be  guilty  before  God. 

2.  THE  EVIDENCES  OF  THE  FINAL  JUDGMENT.  —  The 
aspirations  of  quickened  and  ardent  piety  "  look  for- 
ward and  hasten  to  the  coming  of  the  day  of  God  ; "  1 
and  burdened  with  indwelling  and  surrounding  sin, 
exposed  to  detraction  and  persecution,  the  longing 
soul  cries,  "  Even  so  come,  Lord  Jesus,"  quickly.2  On 
the  other  hand,  the  guilty  have  dread  forebodings  of 
its  coming.  Felix  trembled  at  Paul's  preaching  of 
the  judgment  to  come,3  and  the  devils  anticipate 
their  time  of  torment.4  These  inward  premonitions 
are  sure  foretokens  that  the  day  is  coming.  The 
reason  of  the  case  calls  for  such  vindication  and 
deliverance  of  the  good,  and  such  destructive  rejec- 
tion of  the  bad  ;  but  beyond  all,  the  direct  revelation 
of  God  has  kept  the  fact  perpetually  before  the 
world.  David  says,  "  The  Lord  shall  judge  the  peo- 
ple ;  "  and  prays,  "  0,  let  the  wickedness  of  the  wicked 
come  to  an  end ;  but  establish  the  just ;  for  the 
righteous  God  trieth  the  heart  and  the  reins."  5  Solo- 
mon warns  the  thoughtless  youth  of  the  judgment,6 

1  2  Peter  iii.  12.  2  Rev.  xxii.  20.  3  Acts  xxiv.  25. 

4  Matt.  viii.  29.  5  Ps.  vii.  8,  9.  e  Eccl.  xi.  9. 


FINAL   JUDGMENT.  327 

and  urges  on  all  to  keep  God's  commandments  :  "  For 
God  shall  bring  every  work  into  judgment,  with  every 
secret  thing,  whether  it  be  good,  or  whether  it  be 
evil." 1  And  Daniel  had  it  fully  announced  that  all 
things  should  be  fairly  redressed  in  the  end.2 

The  New  Testament  is  much  more  particular.  "  When 
the  Son  of  Man  shall  come  in  his  glory,  and  all  the 
holy  angels  with  him,  then  shall  he  sit  upon  the  throne 
of  his  glory.  And  before  him  shall  be  gathered  all 
nations ;  and  he  shall  separate  them  one  from  the 
other,  as  a  shepherd  divideth  his  sheep  from  the  goats ; 
and  he  shall  set  the  sheep  on  his  right  hand,  but  the 
goats  on  the  left."  3  "  For  we  must  all  appear  before 
the  judgment  seat  of  Christ,  that  every  one  may  re- 
ceive the  things  done  in  his  body,  whether  it  be  good 
or  bad."  * 

3.  THE  DAY  WILL  COME  SUDDENLY  AND  UNEXPECTEDLY. 
—  There  are  considerations  by  which  we  know  the 
world  is  not  yet  ready  for  the  judgment.  The  gospel 
is  to  be  "  first  preached  to  all  the  world,"  5  and  the 
man  of  sin  is  to  be  fully  exposed,  before  the  judg- 
ment.6 But  if  not  now  ready,  when  these  events  shall 
have  passed,  it  will  still  be  left  uncertain  when  the 
Judge  shall  come.  Before  the  destruction  of  Jerusa- 
lem, it  was  foretold  that  portentous  precursors  should 
be  given ;  and  the  manifestly  double  representation 

1  Eccl.  xii.  14.  2  Dan.  xii.  2-13.  3  Matt.  xxv.  31-46. 

4  2  Cor.  v.  10;  see  also  Acts  xvii.  31;  Horn.  xiv.  10. 

5  Matt.  xxiy.  14.  6  2  Thess.  ii.  3. 


328  LAST   THINGS   IN  REDEMPTION. 

of  the  destruction  of  the  temple  and  the  end  of  the 
world  in  the  prophecy  Matt.  xxiv.  15  to  33  has  in- 
duced the  opinion  that  forewarnings  of  the  judgment 
will  also  be  given.  But  that  generation  was  not  to 
pass  before  the  signs  should  be  fulfilled.1  History  de- 
clares these  signs  appeared '  before  Jerusalem  was 
destroyed,  but  the  sign  preceding  the  judgment  is 
the  appearing  of  the  "  Son  of  Man  in  heaven/'  and  the 
sounding  trumpet,  and  the  sending  the  angels  to  gather 
the  dead  together,2  which  only  immediately  precede 
the  judgment  scene.  All  representations  referring  to 
the  mode  of  Christ's  second  coming  make  it  to  be  a 
surprise,  from  its  being  unheralded 'by  any  indications. 
"  Watch,  therefore,  for  ye  know  neither  the  day  nor  the 
hour  wherein  the  Son  of  Man  cometh."  3  "  But  the 
day  of  the  Lord  will  come  as  a  thief  in  the  night,  in 
the  which  the  heavens  shall  pass  away  with  a  great 
noise'."  4 

4.  THE  JUDGE  WILL  APPEAR  IN  GREAT  MAJESTY^.  — 
In  this  respect  the  second  coming  of  Christ  strongly 
contrasts  with  the  manner  of  his  first  appearance.  All 
manifestations  of  weakness,  poverty,  suffering,  and 
degradation  have  forever  passed  away,  and  the  exhi- 
bitions of  great  splendor,  terrible  majesty,  and  glorious 
authority  are  made.  All  judgment  is  committed  to 
the  Son ; 5  and  he  is  "  ordained  of  God  to  be  the  judge 
of  quick  and  dead ;  "  6  and  he  comes  in  fitting  honor 

1  Matt.  xxiy.  34.  2  Matt.  xxiv.  30.  Matt.  xxv.  13. 

4  2  Pet.  iii.  10;  see  also  1  Thess.  v.  2,  3. 

5  John  v.  22  and  27.  6  Acts  x.  42. 


FINAL  JUDGMENT.  329 

for  such  an  office.  It  is  in  "  the  glory  of  his  Father 
with  the  holy  angels  ;  "  1  "  in  flaming  fire,  taking  ven- 
geance on  them  that  know  not  God."  2  "  Every  eye 
shall  see  him,  and  they  also  which  pierced  him ; " 3 
"  thousand  thousands  ministered  unto  him,  and  ten 
thousand  times  ten  thousand  stood  before  him ;  the 
judgment  was  set,  and  the  books  were  opened."  4 

5.  THOSE  WHO  ABE  TO  BE  JUDGED.  —  The  work  of 
redemption  has  had  special  reference  to  men,  and 
their  probation  has  been  justified  through  the  Re- 
deemer's mediation;  the  judgment  day  must  on  this 
account  specially  concern  humanity.  But  all  intelli- 
gences have  been  spectators  of  the  redeeming  work, 
and  are  participants,  in  some  form,  in  its  influence ; 
and  hence  the  disclosures  made  and  the  convictions 
secured  are  to  reach  all  moral  beings.  "  Every  knee 
shall  bow,  and  every  tongue  confess  that  Jesus  Christ 
is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father."  And  this 
not  only  of  "  all  in  heaven  and  on  earth,"  but  u  all  under 
the  earth ; "  universally,  all  intelligences  shall,  by  the 
judgment  disclosures,  be  made  to  approve  of  Christ's 
work  as  honorable  to  God.5  Holy  angels  have  from 
the  beginning  been  ministering  spirits  to  men,  and  to 
Christ  in  the  days  of  his  flesh;  nor  could  the  judg- 
ment of  men  be  complete  without  including  that  of 
angels,  both  elect  and  fallen.  All  orders  of  moral  be- 
ings —  angels,  devils,  and  men  —  are  to  be  present  and 

1  Matt.  xvi.  27.  2  2  Thess.  i.  8.  3  Kev.  i.  7. 

4  Dan.  vii.  9,  10.  6  Phil.  ii.  10,  11. 


330  LAST  THINGS  IN   REDEMPTION. 

interested  participants  in  the  transactions.  Good  an- 
gels come  with  Christ ; l  fallen  angels  have  been  re- 
served compulsorily  for  this  day  ; 2  and  all  the  human 
race  are  there.3  The  grand  end  is,  a  complete  and 
universal  vindication  of  God  towards  all,  and  in  the 
presence  of  all ;  forever  settling  the  integrity  of  the 
government  of  God  as  extending  over  all  worlds. 

6.  ALL  SECRETS  THEN  LAID  OPEN.  —  Isaiah  repre- 
sents God  as  saying  to  his  people,  "  I,  even  I,  am  he 
that  blotteth  out  thy  transgressions  for  mine  own 
sake,  and  wrill  not  remember  thy  sins."  4  On  this  ac- 
count, and  as  if  to  save  from  degradation  to  them- 
selves and  dishonor  to  Christ,  it  has  been  surmised 
that  saints,  shall  not  have  their  secret  sins  disclosed. 
But  the  meaning  of  the  text  is  exhausted,  in  that  God 
will  not  remember  his  people's  sins  so  as  to  punish ; 
and  the  grace  of  Christ  to  his  children  cannot  appear 
but  in  the  amount  of  sins  forgiven.  The  full  declara- 
tion is,  "  God  shall  bring  every  work  into  judgment, 
with  every  secret  thing,  whether  it  be  good  or 
whether  it  be  evil." 5  And  not  only  the  conduct  of 
the  subjects  shall  be  brought  to  light,  but  the  deal- 
ings of  God  the  Sovereign  shall  have  their  explana- 
tion. The  many  unaccountable  and  mysterious  provi- 
dences, wherein  God  hid  his  counsels,  shall  so  be  fully 
unfolded  that  all  shall  acquiesce  and  praise.  God  has 

1  Luke  ix.  26.  2  2  Pet.  2,  4 ;  Jude  6.  3  Rev.  xx.  12. 

4  Isa.  xliii.  25.  6  Eccl.  xii.  14. 


FINAL   JUDGMENT.  331 

beforehand  said,  "  What  I  do  thou  knowest  not  now, 
but  thou  shalt  know  hereafter."  l 

7.  FORM  AND  PROCESS  OF  THE  JUDGMENT.  —  From 
the  several  representations  of  the  judgment  we  may 
obtain  the  following  particulars  in  form  and  process, 
after  the  manner  of  human  judicial  proceedings : 
There  will  be  the  throne,  or  judgment  seat,  and  this 
occupied  by  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  Judge.2  There 
will  be  evidence  received,  as  if  from  accredited  affida- 
vits and  recorded  depositions  in  u  books,"  indicating 
the  disclosures  of  omniscience.3  "  And  the  dead  were 
judged  out  of  those  things  which  were  written  in  the 
books  according  to  their  works."  Judicial  decisions 
and  official  sentences  will  be  given  ;  4  and  besides  the 
books  of  testimony,  the  Judge  has  kept  his  record  of 
all  the  names  he  justifies  in  his  own  "book  of  life."5 
It  was  an  ancient  practice,  after  trial,  to  arrange  the 
acquitted  and  the  condemned  in  opposite  ranks,  and  so 
at  the  judgment  it  is  "  as  a  shepherd  divideth  sheep 
from  goats ;  "  6  and  the  respective  allotments  follow.7 

These  representations,  instead  of  being  taken  as 
literal  transactions,  are*  rather  a  mode  of  expressing 
full,  impartial  trial,  and  righteous  decision  and  execu- 
tion. All  iniquity  is  uncovered,  and  every  person's 


1  John  xiii.  7.  2  Matt.  xxv.  31 ;   Rev.  xx.  11. 

3  Dan.  vii.  10;  1  Cor.  iv.  5;  Rev.  xx.  12. 
"Matt.  xxv.  31  and 41. 

5  Mai.  iii.  16;  Rev.  xx.  12  and  16;  Rev.  xxi.  27. 

6  Matt.  xxv.  32.  7  Matt.  xxv.  46. 


332  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

disposition  and  character  revealed,  and  all  divine  deal- 
ings with  both  righteous  and  wicked  through  the  uni- 
verse are  put  full  in  the  light.  The  disclosure  will 
carry  conviction  of  God's ,  rectitude  to  every  -con- 
science. 

8.  THE  GENERAL  CONFLAGRATION  OF  THE  WORLD.  — 
Job  speaks  of  a  time  when  "  the  heavens  shall  be  no 
more ; "  1  and  the  Psalmist  affirms  of  the  earth  and 
heavens  that  "  they  shall  perish ; " 2  and  Isaiah  de- 
clares "  the  heavens  shall  be  rolled  together  as  a 
scroll ; "  3  thus  indicating  that  of  old  it  was  believed 
the  present  order  and  movement  of  nature  would  at 
one  time  be  subverted ;  but  of  the  fact  and  manner 
the  revelations  of  the  New  Testament  are  particularly 
clear  and  exact.  Christ  says,  "  Heaven  and  earth 
shall  pass  away."  4  And  Peter  foretells  that  the  heav- 
ens shall  pass  away  with  a  great  noise,  and  the  ele- 
ments shall  melt  with  fervent  heat,  and  the  earth  and 
the  works  that  are  therein  shall  be  burned  up."  5  And 
John,  in  the  Revelation,,  saw  the  judgment  throne  and 
him  that  sat  upon  it,  u  from  whose  face  the  earth  and 
heavens  fled  away,  and  there  was  found  no  place  for 
them." 6  This  does  not  mean  annihilation,  but  a 
making  over  in  a  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth ;  and 
as  once  the  world  was  destroyed  by  a  flood,  so  at  last 
it  is  to  be  renovated  by  flame.  And  this  appropriately 
concludes  the  judgment,  which  forever  disposes  of 

1  Job  xiv.  12.  2  Ps.  cii.  26.  3  Isa.  xxxiv.  4. 

4  Luke  xxi.  33.  5  2  Pet.  iii.  10.  3  Rev.  xx.,  11. 


ISSUES   OF   THE   JUDGMENT.  333 

sin,  and  then  cleanses  by  fire  the  guilty  world  in 
which  so  much  sin  has  been.  The  groaning  crea- 
tion finds  deliverance  in  "  the  glorious  liberty  of 
the  children  of  God.7' 1 


SECTION    V. 

THE    ISSUES    OF    THE    JUDGMENT    FOR    BOTH    THE 
RIGHTEOUS    AND    THE    WICKED. 

FROM  history  and  prophecy  we  have  been  able  to 
trace  the  leading  interpositions  of  God  in  human  ex- 
perience from  the  creation  to  the  final  judgment,  and 
find  in  the  consummation  that  what  the  reason  of  the 
case  required  should  be,  that  in  God's  acts  ever  has 
been.  Bible  eschatology  and  speculative  reason  are 
one  and  the  same,  in  completely  vindicating  the  equity 
and  integrity  of  the  divine  government  through  the 
whole  process  of  human  probation.  But  here  proba- 
tionary history  ceases,  and  speculation  goes  over  into 
the  world  of  retribution ;  and  in  this  complete  over- 
turn from  the  sensual  to  the  spiritual,  it  is  to  be  ex- 
pected that  there  must  be  greater  obscurity  in  tra- 
cing particular  consequential  results,  in  divine  inter- 
ferences with  the  experience  of  humanity.  The  same 

1  Rom.  viii.  21,  22. 


334  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

stream  still  flows  on,  but  it  here  passes  through  such 
a  chasm,  and  is  to  emerge  from  the  gulf  into  so 
altered  a  region,  that  we  more  hesitatingly  say  what 
the  future  channel  from  the  past  current  determinate- 
ly  must  be.  And  yet,  since  in  the  resurrection  hu- 
manity is  still  soul  and  spirit  reunited,  and  coming 
retribution  is  for  the  disposition  and  character  formed 
in  past  probation,  reason  may  see  in  'general  what  the 
issues  of  the  judgment  should  be  in  the  retributive 
experiences  of  both  the  good  and  the  bad.  Revela- 
tion also  sends  gleams  of  light  beyond  the  judgment, 
and  discloses  something  of  the  coming  occurrences 
between  God  and  man  in  this  spirit-world. 

It  may  both  clear  the  insight  of  reason,  and  strengthen 
our  faith  in  revelation,  if  we  get  in  a  position  to 
take  in  both  together,  and  see  how  completely,  in 
the  world  of  retribution,  the  revealed  dealings  of 
God  tally  with  the  determinations  of  reason.  Stand- 
ing, then,  at  the  closing  of  the  judgment  scene,  and 
from  an  insight  of  the  past  attaining  a  clear  contem- 
plation in  reason  of  what  humanity  then  is,  we  can 
speculatively  there  see  what  the  future  of  humanity 
must  be ;  and  can  there,  also,  read  the  record  of 
divine  revelation,  declaring  what  the  future  of  hu- 
manity shall  be ;  and  very  certainly  we  shall  not  find 
any  contradiction  between  them. 

1.  ALL  THE  DEALINGS  OP  GOD  WITH  MAN,  PRECED- 
ING THE  JUDGMENT,  HAVE  BEEN  REASONABLE.  —  Both 
an  aesthetic  and  an  ethic  interest  prompted  to  an 


ISSUES   OF  THE  JUDGMENT.  335 

outer  manifestation  of  the  inward  ideal  of  the  uni- 
verse, and  thus  the  overt  creation  of  the  worlds  was 
in  the  end  of  Absolute  Reason  alone ;  nor  could  the 
creation  of  intelligences  be  arrested  by  anything 
short  of  the  full  expression  of  the  complete  Idea. 
However  variously  other  intelligent  beings  may  be 
constituted,  it  was  reasonable  that  in  some  world  soul 
and  spirit  in  union  should  exist,  and  give  occasion 
for  sense-gratification  to  be  brought  under  the  rule 
of  spirit ;  and  thus  it  was  worthy  of  God  to  constitute 
humanity  with  the  open  way  to  a  spiritual  disposing 
in  righteousness,  and  that  he  should  be  put  upon  our 
earth  and  have  dominion  over  it.  He  must  be  tried 
in  order  to  be  virtuous  in  a  confirmed  character,  and 
it  was  reasonable  that  man's  trial  should  be  made  an 
occasion  for  the  adequate  trial  also  of  other  intelligent 
beings  ;  and  such  mode  of  trial  was  all  reasonably  ar- 
ranged. The  best  possible  test  for  man,  and  in  him 
the  best  trial  for  other  intelligent  spirits,  was  given, 
in  which  the  devil  sinned,  and  induced  man's  fall ; 
and  God's  disapprobation  and  pity  followed  just  as  in 
reason  it  should  ;  and  such  rational  abhorrence  of  sin, 
and  pity  for  the  tempted  sinner,  rationally  provided 
the  way  of  Gospel  Redemption. 

Under  the  conditions  of  a  promised  Deliverer,  in- 
volving his  incarnation  and  crucifixion  and  the  Spirit's 
mission,  it  was  reasonable  that  a  new  probation  should 
begin,  and  tnat  the  human  race  should  multiply  and 
be  disciplined  for  an  eternal  state ;  and  in  this  new 
probation  for  humanity,  God  has  done  at  his  own  self- 


336  LAST   THINGS    IN   REDEMPTION. 

sacrifice  all  that  reason  prompts  and  permits  for  re- 
storing the  lost  and  confirming  the  faithful  in  loyal 
allegiance.  In  all  ages  some  have  been  reclaimed, 
and  some  would  not  be  inclined  to  reformation ;  and 
the  judgment  day,  as  we  have  now  contemplated  it, 
comes  and  brings  out  to  universal  conviction  God's 
honor,  truth,  and  righteousness  in  all  that  he  has  done, 
and  all  that  he  has  forborne  to  do.  And  now,  all 
means  of  grace,  hitherto  reasonably  applied,  are  here 
reasonably  arrested.  Patience,  and  inviting,, and  so- 
liciting, must  now  stop  or  be  unreasonable.  As  a 
righteous  moral  Ruler,  God  can  allow  pity  no  further 
scope;  for  compassion  must  be  reasonable,  and  it  has 
reached  its  limit.  All  could  have  returned,  but  many 
would  not ;  all  now  can  come  back  of  their  own  accord, 
but  none  that  have  not  returned  now  will :  and  in  this 
the  issue  settles  itself,  just  as  the  free  disposing  of 
the  human  spirit  fixes  it ;  and  the  compassion  which 
bled  and  died  on  the  cross  can  do  no  more,  without 
bringing  conscious  reproach  to  God  himself.  The  uni* 
verse  has  seen  the  cup  of  divine  self-sacrifice  drained 
for  sinners,  till  reason  is  constrained  to  cry  out,  "  It  is 
finished." 

The  reclaimed  are  by  the  judgment  acquitted  and 
saved ;  bu,t  it  is  of  grace  in  Christ  Jesus  that  they 
have  come  back,  and  been  pardoned  and  justified. 
The  incorrigible  are  condemned  and  cast  out ;  but  it 
is  for  the  stubborn  hate  that  did,  and  does,  reject  all 
the  blood-bought  overtures  of  reconciliation.  Divine 
pity  for  the  condemned  is  as  deep  as  ever,  but  it 


ISSUES  OF  THE  JUDGMENT.  337 

would  be  unreasonable  that  God  should  act  from 
pity  any  further,  and  he  satisfies  reason  in  hence- 
forth manifesting  exactly  rational  displeasure  towards 
them.  All  sinners  now  stand  precisely  in  the  point 
of  just  desert  before  God,  and  the  universe,  and  in 
their  own  consciences ;  and  the  Judge  is  clear  in  his 
judging,  and  just  in  his  condemning.  He  did  reason- 
ably and  rightly  in  creating,  trying,  redeeming,  and 
again  proving  mankind;  he  had  that  "joy  set  before 
him "  when  "  he  endured  the  cross  and  despised  its 
shame,"  which  he  now  has  in  possession  when  he 
welcomes  "  the  seed  "  he  saves  to  his  kingdom,  and 
he  is  "  satisfied."  He  pities  now,  as  he  has  ever 
done,  the  stubbornly  self-ruined ;  but  he  holds  his  pity 
subordinate  to  his  integrity,  and  in  this  also  he  is 
satisfied.  The  number  of  the  irrecoverably  lost 
among  men  and  devils  may  be  small,  compared  with 
the  unsinning  in  all  worlds,  and  the  recovered  in  this 
world;  and  the  confirmation  of  the  holy  in  allegiance 
may  result,  from  what  of  God  they  have  seen  in  his  re- 
deeming or  punishing  such  as  despised  his  redemp- 
tion ;  and  so  in  his  own  reasonably  doing  and  using 
what  his  creatures  have  freely  but  unreasonably 
done,  he  stands  whole  in  his  honor  and  glory  before 
the  universe,  and  thoroughly  self-consistent  and  com- 
placent in  his  own  consciousness.  He  has  secured 
as  many  converts  as  in  reason  he  could,  and  he  has 
done  as  much  and  waited  as  long  for  the  wicked  as 
in  reason  he  might,  and  he  knows  that  every  saved 
22 


338  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

and  lost  spirit  has  the  full  light  of  his  eternal  in- 
tegrity. 

2.  THE  FUTURE  WILL  EVER  PRESENT  GOD  AS  REASON- 
ABLE. —  The  sense-world  and  the  spirit-world  widely 
differ,  but  in  both  the  same  Absolute  Reason  holds 
sway ;  and  in  this  respect  God's  government  in  retri- 
bution is  but  a  perpetuation  of  his  government  with 
probationers.  The  "  new  heavens  "  and  the  "  new 
earth  "  are  a  renovation  from  the  old,  —  not  that  the 
old  have  been  annihilated.  The  material  and  ethereal 
forces  are  all  conserved,  and  the  recombinations  are 
only  for  a  more  complete  application  of  reward  and 
penalty  to  spiritual  being. 

The  righteous  have  their  resurrection-body  in 
complete  subserviency  to  the  spirit,  and  it  moves 
and  rests  as  the  spirit  determines.  The  material  and 
ethereal  forces  are  the  identical  substances  which 
stood  as  the  basis  of  the  earthy  body,  and  the  one 
spiritual  life  now  goes  into  the  sentient  soul  and  resur- 
rection-body, individualizing  it  as  "  spiritual  body," 
and  yet  the  same  body  that  was  on  earth;  and  the 
blended  material  and  ethereal  forces  move  unhindered 
at  the  spirit's  will,  free  and  rapid  as  the  light  in  its 
own  vibrations.  The  universe  is  open,  and  they 
traverse  or  contemplate  its  worlds  and  their  inter- 
spaces at  pleasure.  They  also  recognize  the  accord- 
ant sympathies  and  dispositions  of  the  heavenly  so- 
ciety as  clearly  as  the  beauty  and  harmony  of  the 
material  systems ;  and  there  is  perpetual  fellow- 


ISSUES   OF  THE   JUDGMENT.  339 

ship  and  also  immediate  communion  with  the  good, 
and  in  full  assurance  that  there  can  be  no  social  dis- 
ruptions, for  all  are  in  conscious  agreement  with  the 
Absolute  Spirit.  While  the  outlying  material  worlds 
move,  in  their  respective  systems,  in  the  peripheral 
spaces  of  the  universe,  and  the  pure  ethereal  sphere 
holds  them  out  in  balanced  security,  the  great  central 
source  of  this  creating  power  and  guiding  wisdom  is 
the  true  Shechina,  or  brightest  manifestation  of  the 
Triune  Jehovah  ;  and  yet  with  no  excess  of  light,  for 
the  purified  vision  of  the  blessed  is  made  adequate 
to  stand  face  to  face  before  it.  Since  Christ  has 
made  them  right  towards  God,  God  has  only  serene 
loveliness  towards  them. 

But  to  the  incorrigibly  wicked  the  same  Absolute 
Reason,  in  which  the  redeemed  have  become  one, 
makes  the  Divine  Presence  a  most  terrible  adversary. 
Their  resurrection-bodies  are  also  indissoluble,  and 
spiritually  subservient,  like  the  righteous;  but  the 
radically  different  disposition  changes  the  whole  ex- 
perience. This  has  been  in  bondage  to  the  sense, 
and  the  end  of  the  soul  is  still  made  to  be  sentient 
and  selfish  gratification.  Though  the  carnal  instru- 
ments are  dissolved,  and  all  fleshly  members  are  left 
behind,  the  sentient  inclinations  are  still  retained,  and 
the  stubborn  spirit  keeps  its  perverse  disposing  in 
their  interest  with  even  intenser  obstinacy  than  in 
the  flesh.  Their  determinately  perverted  reason  has 
become  incorrigibly  confirmed  unreason,  and  this 
madness  of  the  spirit  now  works  itself  out  in  the 


340  LAST   THINGS   IN   REDEMPTION. 

baser  folly  and  wilder  frenzy  of  the  sentient  soul. 
That  sets  itself  towards  gratifications  it  cannot  get, 
and  aims  at  ends  it  cannot  attain,  and  the  captive 
spirit  puts  its  own  immortal  energies  into  these  tan- 
talizing enterprises,  the  continual  issue  of  which  is 
disappointment  and  shame.  Nothing  is  so  repugnant 
to  such  unreason  as  the  witness  of  the  Absolute  Rea- 
son, and  they  will  turn  away,  both  in  hate  and  fear, 
from  all  that  manifests  his  wisdom  and  holiness.  They 
flee  from  the  bright  central  light  and  glory  of  that 
presence,  to  them  so  dreadful,  and  hide  as  they  may 
within  the  shadows  of  the  material  worlds,  to  their  sen- 
tient seeking  the  more  grateful.  And  even  material 
nature  in  its  truth  and  beauty  is  made  hateful  to  the 
wicked ;  for  it  cannot  gratify  lost  carnal  senses,  and 
it  does  reproach  and  offend  the  spirit  now  turned  to 
folly. 

And  still  more  than  with  the  beauty  and  truth  in 
universal  nature  are  the  wicked  displeased  with  the 
reasonably-disposed  life  and  society  of  the  righteous. 
There  is  no  communion  with  the  blessed,  and  they 
must  associate  with  the  guilty  ;  and  even  here,  as  in 
everything  else,  their  own  perverseness  makes  their 
wretchedness.  No  one  can  trust  or  love,  his  fellow, 
for  they  well  know  each  other's  selfishness.  In  their 
determined  wilful  unreasonableness,  it  is  reasonable 
that  they  distrust  and  disturb  one  another.  There 
must  be  a  retributive  method  in  their  very  madness. 
It  is  not  the  part  of  Absolute  Reason  to  attempt  cor- 
recting incorrigible  unreason,  but  rather  to  display 


ISSUES   OF   THE  JUDGMENT.  341 

the  terrible  irony  which  sets  unreason  reasonably  to 
punish  itself.  It  is  even  so  that  God  "  laughs  at  the 
calamity  of  the  ungodly,  and  mocks  when  their  fear 
cometh."  He  pities,  but  it  is  not  the  place  for 
pity  to  help  them ;  he  may  not  even  annihilate  them, 
for  what  they  have  already  been  and  done  cannot  be 
annihilated.  They  must,  in  their  own  retribution, 
perpetuate  the  only  counteraction  to  their  guilty 
folly.  They  might  at  any  moment  repent,  confess, 
and  come  into  reasonable  allegiance,  and  receive  all 
reasonable  alleviation ;  but  since  they  will  not,  com- 
passion may  not  help  them ;  it  would  only  make  the 
divine  pity  itself  unreasonable. 

3.  REVELATION  ALSO  MAKES  THE  FUTURE  DETER- 
MINED BY  THE  CHARACTER.  —  To  live  for  the  end  of 
reason  is  to  be  righteous  and  godty ;  to  live  for  sen- 
tient gratification  is  to  be  wicked  and  selfish ;  and 
these  two  ends  of  living  characterize  humanity  in  its 
two  grand  distinctions,  besides  which  there  can  be  no 
third  class.  And  the  Bible  accords  with  rational 
speculation  in  making  the  future  experience  to  be  de- 
termined by  the  character  found  at  the  judgment. 
The  separation  is  according  to  these  distinctions. 

Of  those  "  that  feared  the  Lord  "  it  is  recorded, 
"  they  shall  be  mine,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  in  that 
day  when  I  make  up  my  jewels ;  and  I  will  spare 
them  as  a  man  spareth  his  own  son  that  serveth  him. 
Then  shall  ye  return  and  discern  between  the  right- 
eous and  the  wicked,  between  him  that  serveth  God 


342  LAST   THINGS   IN   REDEMPTION. 

and  him  that  serveth  him  not."  l  Jesus  Christ  de- 
clares, "  The  Son  of  Man  shall  send  forth  his  angels, 
and  they  shall  gather  out  of  his  kingdom  all  things 
that  offend,  and  them  which  do  iniquity.  And  they 
shall  cast  them  into  a  furnace  of  fire  ;  there  shall  be 
wailing  and  gnashing  of  teeth.  Then  shall  the  right- 
eous shine  forth  as  the  sun  in  the  kingdom  of  the 
Father." 2  And  again,  Christ  says  the  dead  "  shall 
come  forth,  they  that  have  done  good  unto  the  resur- 
rection of  life,  and  they  that  have  done  evil  unto  the 
resurrection  of  damnation."  3  "  Behold,  I  come  quick- 
ly ;  and  my  reward  is  with  me,  to  give  to  every  man 
according  as  his  work  shall  be."  4 

4.  THE  PURPORT  OF  THE  BIBLE  is,  PROBATION  IN  LIFE, 

AND  ENDLESS  RETRIBUTION  AFTER  THE  JUDGMENT.  —  This 

is  true  both  of  the  righteous  and  the  wicked ;  but 
since  there  is  neither  the  wish  nor  the  attempt  to 
question  this  in  reference  to  the  righteous,  we  need 
only  give  attention  to  the  general  representations  of 
Scripture  regarding  the  probation  and  retribution  of 
the  wicked,  and  this  as  to  general  drift  without  ad- 
ducing particular  texts. 

Life  is  everywhere  presented  as  the  period  of  trial  j 
a  prison  of  hope ;  a  day  of  grace  ;  an  accepted  time  ; 
and  thus  urgently  to  be  improved  as  the  only  opportu- 
nity for  reformation  and  reconciliation  with  God. 
After  death  and  the  judgment,  the  representations  as 

1  Mai.  iii.  17,  18.  2  Matt.  xiii.  41,  42. 

3  John  v.  29.  4  Rev.  xxii.  12. 


ISSUES   OP   THE   JUDGMENT.  343 

invariably  are  penal  endurance  j  prison  of  darkness  and 
despair ;  judgment  without  mercy.  Chastisement,  dis- 
ciplinary correction,  is  for  the  probationary  state  ;  but 
after  the  judgment  comes  penalty,  vindication  of  au- 
thority, as  if  there  were  no  expectation  further  of 
return  to  loyalty,  or  fitness  in  using  means  for  recov- 
ery. It  is  as  if  patience  were  exhausted,  and  pity  in 
vain,  and  forbearance  had  found  its  limit;  for  the 
wicked  are  so  irrecoverably  lost  as  to  refuse  all  cor- 
rection, and  can  be  dealt  with  further  only  in  perpe1> 
ual  retribution.  Reason  can  to  them  have  further 
application  only  in  holding  them  in  the  attitude  of 
penal  warning,  and  vindictive  admonition  of  the  sanc- 
tity of  law  and  the  heinous  guilt  of  standing  out 
stubbornly  against  both  mercy  and  authority.  All 
this  is  just  in  accordance  with  the  reason  of  the  case, 
and  the  full  scope  of  revelation  cannot  fairly  be  inter- 
preted by  any  other  meaning.  This  is  proved :  — 

i.  By  the  Scripture  record  of  Providential  Judg- 
ments. —  With  all  the  examples  of  patient  expostula- 
tion and  paternal  discipline  and  correction,  there  are 
manifest  cases  in  the  Bible  of  providential  punish- 
ment exclusive  of  all  design  for  chastisement.  The 
stroke  was  purely  in  judgment,  irrespective  of  all  re- 
gard to  the  good  of  the  suffering  sinner.  The  wicked 
have  been  smitten  down  in  their  sins  with  no  end  in 
reclaiming  them,  but  with  the  clear  intent  of  vindi- 
cating the  majesty  of  despised  authority.  They  are  ex- 
amples like  those  of  the  Flood;  the  destruction  of  Sod- 


344  LAST  THINGS  IN   REDEMPTION. 

om ,;  cf  Pharaoh ;  of  Jerusalem  after  Christ's  crucifixion, 
when  the  Christians  followed  their  Master's  direction,1 
and  fled  to  the  mountains  of  Pella  and  were  saved. 
In  all  the  above  cases  some  were  saved,  and  suffered 
only  in  chastisement;  the  wicked  retributively  per- 
ished. So  we  must  interpret  such  cases,  and  under- 
stand that  punishment  still  followed  on  after  the  tem- 
poral judgment,  else  were  the  real  severity  on  the 
good  who  were  spared,  and  the  greatest  kindness  to- 
wards the  evil  who  went  at  once  into  eternal  favor. 
So  of  Judas,  and  Ananias  and  Sapphira  in  their  lying 
unto  God ;  if  their  death  were  only  chastisement,  and 
not  judgment,  the  dealings  of  God  were  better  to- 
wards the  dying  bad  than  towards  the  living  good. 

ii.  The  Feeling  manifested  by  the  Inspired  Teacli- 
ers.  —  The  inspired  prophets,  apostles,  and  evangel- 
ists knew  what  the  truth  was  in  reference  to  proba- 
tionary continuance  and  retributive  commencement, 
and  their  earnestness  in  their  work  discloses  what  they 
knew.  They  were  sincere  men,  and  their  zeal  bespoke 
their  true  feeling,  and  their  feeling  told  their  hone»t 
conviction.  Their  pressing  invitations,  and  sharp  admo- 
nitions, and  personal  sacrifices  tell  how  strongly  they 
felt  the  urgency  of  the  sinner's  case,  that  he  be  im- 
mediately reconciled  to  God,  and  the  terrible  risk  in 
all  procrastination  of  repentance  and  of  faith  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Such  zeal  and  sacrifice  could  not  con- 

1  Matt.  xxiv.  16. 


ISSUES   OP  THE  JUDGMENT.  345 

i 

sist  with  any  other  conviction  than  that  life  was  the 
short  probation,  and  that  the  life  to  come  was  settled 
by  it. 

iii.  So  also  by  the  Conduct  of  their  Hearers.  - 
The  effect  produced  is  abundantly  evidential  of  the 
doctrine  declared.  There  can  be  no  more  mistake  in 
determining  the  tenor  of  the  apostles'  preaching  from 
its  results  than  in  the  case  of  an}^  modern  ministry. 
Flam,  simple,  direct,  earnest,  clearly  apprehended, 
their  hearers  took  the  intended  truth  of  the  message, 
and  the  result  in  their  life  and  practice  tells  us  what 
its  meaning  was.  Some  were  converted  to  an  entire- 
ly new  life,  after  the  deepest  sense  of  sin  and  guilt, 
and  inward  struggle  to  renounce  all  selfishness,  and 
return  to  truth  and  righteousness.  When  the  sinner 
did  not  yield  and  renounce  his  sin,  he  showed  the 
pressure  he  had  felt  on  his  conscience  by  the  intense* 
hatred  and  hostility  to  the  obligation.  Pressing  upon 
men  the  obligations  of  immediate  repentance  and  holi- 
ness, and  offering  a  free  salvation  through  Jesus'  grace 
alone,  will  induce  such  conduct  on  both  sides  now  ; 
and  never  in  any  age,  nor  in  any  way  of  preaching 
universal  salvation,  will  such  effects  folio w.  Whether 
he  obeyed  or  rejected,  the  primitive  hearer  of  Christ's 
gospel  knew  it  offered  salvation  now,  and  endless  retri- 
bution if  he  rejected  it. 

iv.    The  plainest  direct   Scripture  declarations  af- 
firm the  Retributions  after  the  Judgment  to  be  end- 


346  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 


?.  —  Of  many  alike  explicit  and  emphatic,  it  is 
sufficient  to  cite  the  following :  "  Some  shall  awake 
to  everlasting  life,  and  some  to  shame  and  everlast- 
ing contempt."  1  "  These  shall  go  away  into  everlast- 
ing punishment,  but  the  righteous  into  life  eternal."2 
"  Who  shall  be  punished  with  everlasting  destruction 
from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and  from  the  glory  of 
his  power." 3  "  He  that  believeth  not  the  Son  shall 
not  see  life,  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him.''*4 
And  as  the  Holy  Ghost  has  the  last  dispensation  in 
human  probation,  and  so  all  preceding  sin  and  rejec- 
tion may,  under  this  last  dispensation,  be  remitted, 
yet,  if  the  Holy  Ghost  be  sinned  against,  and  its 
influence  stubbornly  and  finally  resisted,  the  last 
overture  is  herein  rejected,  and  there  can  be  no  de- 
liverance. "  Whosoever  speaketh  a  word  against  the 
Son  of  Man,  it  shall  be  forgiven  him ;  but  whosoever 
speaketh  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  it  shall  not  be  for- 
given him,  neither  in  this  world,  neither  in  the  world 
to  come."  5 

1  Dan.  xii.  2.  2  Matt.  xxv.  46.  3  2  Thess.  i.  9. 

4  John  iii.  36.  8  Matt.  xii.  32. 


GIVING  UP  THE  MEDIATORIAL  KINGDOM.  347 


SECTION  VI. 

END  OF  THE  MEDIATORIAL  HEIGN. 

REDEMPTION,  planned  in  eternity,  promised  at  the 
fall,  and  opened  in  Christ's  incarnation,  was  consum- 
mated, as  now  considered,  at  the  final  judgment. 
The  wonder  of  wonders  in  the  whole  universe,  "  the 
mystery  of  godliness,  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,"  has 
now  its  complete  development  and  perfect  explana- 
tion in  its  own  fulfilment.  The  mediatorial  work  in 
the  offices  of  prophet,  priest,  and  king  has  here  been 
finished.  But  scarcely  is  this  divine  scheme  in  its 
devising  and  unfolding  a  deeper  mystery  for  finite 
reason,  than  the  disposal  of  it  must  be  when  its  end 
is  accomplished.  In  what  shall  the  Messiah's  reign 
terminate  ?  Immanuel,  God  in  humanity,  has  perfect- 
ly executed  and  thoroughly  completed  all  that  was  in 
the  original  Idea ;  he  has  saved  a  multitude  no  man 
can  number,  satisfied  his  own  soul  for  all  his  atoning 
travail,  and  justified  the  way  of  God  before  the  uni- 
verse ;  and  after  this,  what  next  ? 

This  mediatorial  reign  has  been  means,  not  end  ; 
and  finite  reason  may  see  in  it  that  which  forbids  its 
perpetuity,  while  no  human  reason  may  be  able  to  say 
what  shall  be  done  with  it,  when  God's  purpose  has 


348  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

been  entirely  done  by  it.  Mediatorial  sovereignty  is 
delegated  authority.  "  Head  over  all  things,"  as  Jesus 
at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father  is,  and  glorious  as  this 
royal  majesty  is  made  to  be,  yet  is  the  sovereignty 
in  its  glory  and  majesty  still  a  part  of  Christ's  hu- 
miliation, and  it  should  be  sustained  only  for  the 
attainment  of  the  Father's  design.  It  takes  the  Re- 
deemer out  of  the  poverty  of  his  earthly  life,  and 
above  the  reproach  of  his  crucifixion;  yet  is  it  given 
to  him  as  the  reward  of  his  obedience  unto  death,  and 
is  but  the  splendid  badge  that  in  doing  service  for 
another  and  a  higher,  he  is  thereby  pleasing  the 
other.  Can,  then,  Deity  everlastingly  abide  in  hu- 
manity, and  reign  only  in  vice-regency  ?  If  the  nor- 
mal co-equality  of  persons  in  the  Godhead  may,  for  a 
reasonable  end,  take  positions  of  voluntary  subordina- 
tion, yet  even  finite  reason  can  firmly  say,  the  sub- 
ordinate must  again  rise  to  its  normal  dignity  so  soon 
as  that  reasonable  end  has  been  gained.  And  yet 
inherently  there  are  deep  difficulties  and  dark  mys- 
teries. How  abolish  the  mediatorial  administration, 
and  keep  the  distinctive  church  ?  How  the  song  of 
the  blood-bought  be  eternal,  when  he  who  washed 
them  in  his  blood  is  no  longer  in  humanity  ?  Reason 
sees  a  change  must  be,  but  finite  reason  will  never 
devise  what  the  change  is,  and  how  it  must  be  ef- 
fected. 

One  human  mind,  and  but  one,  has  been  so  opened 
and  elevated  by  the  Spirit  of  omniscience  as  to  see 
through  this  mystery,  and  state  the  way  of  its  clear- 


GIVING   UP   THE   MEDIATORIAL   KINGDOM.  349 

ing-up  for  other  careful  readers  of  his  revelation. 
The  manner  of  moving  back  from  the  wondrous  epi- 
sode of  human  redemption  to  the  eternal  order  of 
God's  normal  administration,  is  given  in  one  short 
and  clear  statement ;  besides  which,  nothing  of  in- 
spiration relieves  the  necessary  perplexity  in  our 
ascertaining  how  this  gracious  digression  can  wisely 
be  brought  in  again  to  the  one  Absolute  Dominion. 
In  his  prophetic  exposition  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
coming  resurrection,  the  apostle  Paul  opens  one  clear 
flash  of  light  upon  the  darkness  beyond  the  reveal- 
ings  of  the  day  of  judgment,  and  in  this  alone,  of  all 
inspired  seers,  Paul  shows  us  how  the  needed  sub- 
serviences and  delegated  authorities  in  mediation 
lapse  again  in  the  Absolute  Sovereignty  of  the  God- 
head. But  while  Paul  only  tells  how  the  mediatorial 
reign  passes  into  the  one  Absolute  Kingdom,  the  be- 
loved disciple,  John,  has  the  crowning  prophetic  pre- 
rogative of  expanding  human  vision  within  the  opening 
brightness  and  blessedness  of  this  one  eternal  Realm 
for  all  heavenly  immortals.  It  will  most  help  our 
comprehension  of  the  wrhole  revelation  to  see  how 
the  success  of  the  mediatorial  reign,  according  to 
Paul's  fuller  vision  here,  culminates  in  Triune  Abso- 
luteness ;  and  then,  to  contemplate  this  eternal  heaven- 
ly Reign,  as  John  was  given  to  behold  it. 

1.  THE  MEDIATORIAL  KINGDOM  FULLY 'COMMITTED  TO 
CHRIST.  —  In  the  second  psalm,  David  introduces  the 
Lord  as  speaking  of  his  Anointed,  saying,  "  I  have 


350  LAST  THINGS   IN  REDEMPTION. 

set  my  King  upon  my  holy  hill  of  Zion.  Ask  of  me, 
and  I  shall  give  thee  the  heathen  for  thy  inheritance, 
and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  thy  posses- 
sion." And  in  the  eighth  psalm  he  speaks  of  Christ's 
dominion  in  a  way  applicable  to  the  dominion  given 
to  humanity  over  other  creatures,  saying,  "  What  is 
man,  that  thou  art  mindful  of  him,  and  the  son  of 
man,  that  thou  visitest  him  ?  For  thou  hast  made 
him  a  little  lower  than  the  angels,  and  hast  crowned 
him  with  glory  and  honor.  Thou  madest  him  to  have 
dominion  over  the  works  of  thine  hands ;  thou  hast 
put  all  things  under  his  feet."  And  when  Christ  as- 
cended, after  his  resurrection,  he  said  to  his  disciples, 
"  All  power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  in  earth."1 
But  the  apostle  Paul  makes  all  this  more  clear  and 
full.  If  we  take  him  to  have  been  the  author  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  —  and  that  he  was,  this  ex- 
clusive Pauline  manner  of  setting  forth  the  media- 
torial authority  is  strong  proof,  —  we  have  him  large- 
ly expounding  the  above  words  of  the  eighth  psalm 
as  God's  delegation  of  kingly  authority  to  the  Divine 
Mediator  in  his  humanity.  And  his  comment  on 
the  passage  is,  "  For  in  that  he  put  all  in  subjection 
under  him,  he  left  nothing  that  is  not  pat  under 
him.  But  now  we  see  not  yet  all  things  put  under 
him.  But  we  see  Jesus,  who  was  made  a  little  lower 
than  the  angels  for  the  suffering  of  death,  crowned  with 
glory  and  honor,  that  he  by  the  grace  of  God  should 
taste  death  for  every  man;"2  and  his  experience  in 

1  Matt,  xxviii.  18.  *  Heb.  ii.  8,  9. 


GIVING  UP  THE  MEDIATORIAL   KINGDOM.  351 

human  nature  and  life  fitted  him  to  be  King,  as  well 
as  "  merciful  High  Priest,"  for  every  purpose  in  the 
work  of  human  redemption.  And  then,  again,  in  the 
first  chapter  of  Ephesians,  we  have  Paul  saying  of 
"  the  God  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Father  of 
glory,"  that  he  hath  "  set  him  at  his  own  right  hand 
in  the  heavenly  places,  far  above  all  principality, 
and  power,  and  might,  and  dominion,  and  every  name 
that  is  named,  not  only  in  this  world,  but  also  in  that 
which  is  to  come ;  and  hath  put  all  things  under  his 
feet,  and  gave  him  to  be  the  head  over  all  things  to 
the  church,  which  is  his  body,  the  fulness  of  him  that 
filleth  all  in  all."  Such,  then,  from  the  Father,  is  the 
Mediator's  full  investiture  of  authority  over  the  entire 
Universe. 

2.  THE  END  FULFILLED  IN  CHRIST'S  ACTUALLY  SUB- 
DUING ALL  THINGS.  —  In  the  last  of  the  psalms  ascribed 
to  David  we  have  the  full  execution  of  this  universal 
subjecting  of  all  earthly  sway  to  Christ,  under  the 
representation  of  a  prayer  for  Solomon,  but  which  is 
comprehensive  of  David's  greater  Son  and  King. 
"  All  kings  shall  fall  down  before  him ;  all  nations 
shall  serve  him."  "His  name  shall  endure  forever; 
his  name  shall  be  continued  as  long  as  the  sun,  and 
men  shall  be  blessed  in  him ;  all  nations  shall  call  him 
blessed." 1  And  so  all  through  the  eighty-ninth  psalm, 
but  especially  in  saying,  "  I  will  make  him,  my  first 
born,  higher  than  the  king,  of  the  earth.  My  mercy 

1  Psalm  Ixxii. 


352  LAST   THINGS   i:;   REDEMPTION. 

will  I  keep  for  him  forevermore,  and  my  covenant 
shall  stand  fast  with  him.  His  seed  also  will  I  make 
to  endure  forever,  and  his  throne  as  the  days  of 
heaven."  And  also  in  the  one  hundred  and  tenth 
psalm,  "  The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  at 
my  right  hand,  until  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  foot- 
stool." John,  in  the  Revelation,  sees  prophetically 
this  progressive,  and  in  the  end  complete  subjugation. 
The  Lamb  leads  the  church  and  defends  the  chosen, 
and  subdues  the  nations,  and  crushes  all  enemies  from 
age  to  age,  till  finally,  at  the  judgment,  "  death  and 
hell  were  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire,"  as  the  destruction 
of  all  opposition. 

But  in  PauPs  representations  we  have  wider  views 
of  mediatorial  accomplishment,  including  not  mankind 
and  this  world  only,  but  also  angels  and  universal 
being.  In  taking  human  nature,  Christ  not  only 
redeemed  man,  but  subdued  the  devil  and  destroyed 
his  work,  and  subjected  all  the  enmity  that  sin  any- 
where induces.  "  Forasmuch  as  the  children  are 
partakers  of  flesh  and  blood,  he  also  himself  took  part 
of  the  same,  that  through  death  he  might  destroy 
him  that  had  the  power  of  death,  that  is,  the  devil, 
and  deliver  them  who  through  fear  of  death  were  all 
their  lifetime  subject  to  bondage." l  In  his  kingly 
authority  he  redresses  all  wrong,  subdues  every 
hostile- power,  and  forces  all  opposition  to  bow  be- 
neath him  in  all  worlds.  "  Wherefore  God  hath  highly 
exalted  him,  and  given  him  a  name  which  is  above 

1  Heb.  ii.  14,  15. 


GIVING  UP  THE  MEDIATORIAL  KINGDOM.  353 

every  name  ;  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee 
should  bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  earth, 
and  things  under  the  earth,  and  that  every  tongue 
should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory 
of  God  the  Father."  l  Here  is  the  conclusive  proof, 
than  which  nothing  can  be  stronger,  that  all  sin  in  the 
universe  has  its  connection  with  the  sin  which  ruined 
humanity.  Man's  Redeemer,  in  doing  his  mediatorial 
work  as  between  God  and  man,  subdues  the  devil, 
destroys  death,  and  brings  every  sinner  in  the  uni- 
verse at  his  feet.  Righteous  angels  and  renewed  men 
willingly  bow,  and  fallen  angels  and  lost  men  are 
crushed  in  penal  retribution  beneath  him,  and  every 
enemy  in  God's  dominion  is  subdued  to  our  Mediator, 
because  he  humbled  himself  in  our  nature ;  and  on 
his  one  judgmen1>seat,  he  redresses  universal  wrong 
in  the  same  right  as  that  with  which  he  squares  man's 
account  with  God.  And  then,  in  another  announce- 
ment, Paul  affirms  the  necessity  for  this  delegated 
mediatorial  authority  to  last  till  all  hostility  is  sub- 
jected ;  and  the  very  last  of  all  that  offends  God's 
majesty,  in  all  worlds,  is  the  death  inflicted  on  hu- 
manity for  Satan's  temptation  and  man's  sin  in  this 
world.  "  For  he  must  reign  till  he  hath  put  all  ene- 
mies under  his  feet.  The  last  enemy  that  shall  be 
destroyed  is  death." 2  All  sin  had  such  connection 
with  and  participation  in  man's  sin  for  which  man  was 
cursed  with  death,  that  in  the  Redeemer's  abolishing 
death  at  the  resurrection  and  final  judgment,  the  last 

1  Phil.  ii.  9-11.  2  1  Cor.  xv.  25,  26. 

23 


354  LAST  THINGS  IN  REDEMPTION. 

enemy's  head  was  bruised  ;  and  this  fatal  blow  on  the 
devil  was  not  direct  from  the  absolute  Godhead,  but 
from  the  avenging  hand  of  the  Mediator,  within  whose 
reach  God  the  Father  had  put  the  devil.  And  so 
Paul  further  says,  "  When  all  things  are  put  under 
him,  it  is  manifest  that  he  is  excepted  which  did  put 
all  things  under  him." 1  As  Mediatorial  King,  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  human  personality,  literally  sub- 
jects all  but  the  God  who  gave  him  authority,  willing- 
ly or  compulsorily,  to  his  sway,  in  whatever  world  it 
may  be.  All  that  dishonors  God  anywhere,  when 
taken  in  hand  by  Jesus  and  put  in  the  light,  which  his 
mediation  empowers  him  to  do,  is  made  to  minister  to 
"  the  glory  of  God  the  Father."  So  much  is  all  sin 
allied  with  human  sin,  that  one  mediation  between  God 
and  man  can  reach  over  and  take  care  of  all  sinners, 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  eternally  and  universally 
vindicate  God  in  his  disposal  of  them. 

3.  WHEN  FINISHED,  PAUL  REVEALS  THE  GIVING  UP 
OF  THE  MEDIATORIAL  KINGDOM.  —  Among  the  later 
prophecies  of  Christ's  advent  was  the  following : 
"  Yet  once,  it  is  a  little  while,  and  I  will  shake  the 
heavens,  and  the  earth,  and  the  sea,  and  the  dry 
land ;  and  I  will  shake  all  nations,  and  the  Desire  of 
all  nations  shall  come,  and  I  will  fill  this  house  with 
my  glory,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."  2  Commenting  on 
this  prophecy,  and  its  reference  to  the  previous  shak- 
ing of  Mount  Sinai  at  the  giving  of  the  law,  the 

1  1  Cor.  xv.  27.  2Hag.  ii.  6,  7. 


UIUVEKSIT'5? 


GIVING  UP  THE  MEDIATORIAL  KINGDOM. 

writer  to  the  Hebrews  says,  "  Whose  voice  then 
shook  the  earth  ;  but  now  hath  he  promised,  saying, 
Yet  once  more  I  shake  not  the  earth  only,  but  also 
heaven.  And  this  word,  yet  once  more,  signifieth  the 
removing  of  those  things  that  are  shaken,  as  of  things 
that  are  made,  that  the  things  which  cannot  be  shaken 
may  remain."  1  And  this  inspired  interpretation  of 
the  prophet  Haggai  is  thoroughly  Pauline,  when  we 
understand  its'  meaning  to  reach  beyond  all  the 
changes  which  Christ's  coming  made  on  earth,  to  the 
removing  of  what  could  not  permanently  remain  in 
his  kingdom  of  heaven.  The  shaking  earth  signified 
that  the  law  had  in  it  a  ceremonial  portion  which 
could  not  be  lasting,  but  must  pass  away  on  earth  at 
Christ's  advent  ;  and  so  the  shaking  heaven  signified 
that  the  redeemed  kingdom  had  also  in  it  a  mediatorial 
part  temporarily  constituted,  and  which  at  last  must 
pass  away,  while  the  things  which  cannot  be  sha- 
ken shall  remain.  With  such  interpretation,  how  su- 
premely striking  the  appeal  following  !  "  Wherefore 
let  us  have  grace,  whereby  we  may  serve  God  ac- 
ceptably, with  reverence  and  godly  fear  ;  for  our  God 
is  a  consuming  fire."  2 

And  now,  this  momentous  fact,  of  the  literal  remov- 
ing from  the  everlasting  kingdom  what  is  not  stable 
within  it,  is  recorded  by  the  prophetic  pen  of  the 
apostle  Paul,  and  by  no  other  inspired  penman.  Most 
concisely,  and  yet  most  clearly,  is  this  astonishing 
transaction  given  in  the  following  record  :  "  Then 

1  Heb.  xii.  26,  27.  2  Heb.  xii.  28,  29. 


356  LAST   THINGS  IN   REDEMPTION. 

cometh  the  end,  when  he  shall  have  delivered  up 
the  kingdom  to  God,  even  the  Father."  "And 
when  all  things  shall  be  subdued  unto  him,  then 
shall  the  Son  also  himself  be  subject  unto  him  that 
put  all  things  under  him,  that  God  may  be  all 
in  all." ! 

In  this  plain  declaration  much  is  directly  expressed, 
and  much  also  is  with  certainty  implied.  Here  is  the 
official  surrendry  of  the  endless  kingdom  to  God,  the 
Father,  so  that  as  a  redeemed  church  it  still  remains, 
but  as  the  direct  possession  of  the  first  person  in  the 
Godhead.  With  this  presentation  of  the  church  to 
the  Father,  there  is  also  the  resignation  of  mediatorial 
authority,  by  which  the  God-man  Redeemer,  has  ruled 
over  it  and  over  all  things,  under  God,  for  the  sake 
of  it.  Moreover,  it  is  -the  direct  assertion  that  Christ, 
having  all  things  subdued  unto  him,  becomes,  as  Son, 
himself  subject  to  the  Father  in  a  new  sense  from  the 
old  mediatorial  subordination.  And  then  finally,  as 
direct  assertion,  this  subjection  of  the  Son  to  the  Fa- 
ther secures  a  new  peculiar  sense  in  which  God  is  all 
in  all.  The  above  directly  asserted  facts  make  neces- 
sary the  following  facts  by  implication.  The  latter 
are  woven  in  with  the  web  of  the  former.  The 
union  of  Deity  and  humanity  in  the  person  of  Jesus 
Christ  becomes  dissolved,  and  the  human  alone,  as  the 
Son,  miraculously  created  by  God  in  the  womb  of  the 
virgin,  hence  onward  with  no  divinity,  is,  like  all 
created  human  personalities,  subject  to  God.  It  is 

1  1  Cor.  xv.  24  and  28. 


GIVING  UP  THE  MEDIATORIAL  KINGDOM.  357 

also  implied,  that  the  Word  made  flesh,  but  now  dis- 
united with  humanity,  takes  the  glory  that  he  "  had 
with  the  Father  before  the  world  was,"  and  the 
Godhead  has  tripersonality  in  intrinsic  unity  as  be- 
fore the  incarnation.  And  finally,  the  necessary 
implication  is,  that  the  Son  in  pure  humanity  has  no 
delegated  authority,  and  neither  capacity  for  nor 
investiture  with  the  offices  of  God's  anointed  Prophet, 
Priest,  and  King ;  and  so  the  glorified  church,  pre- 
sented to  the  Father,  stands  now  face  to  face  with 
the  Triune  God,  needing  and  having  no  official  Media- 
tor ;  and  thus  to  it,  and  to  all  the  holy,  God  is  all  in 
all.  The  perpetuity  of  Jesus'  high  priest's  office,  as 
given  in  the  Hebrews,  "  forever  after  the  order  of 
Melchisedec,"  is  fully  satisfied  by  the  consideration 
that  it  endures  so  long  as  intercession  and  sacrificial 
mediation  are  needed ;  for  this  High  Priest,  "  after  he 
had  offered  one  sacrifice  for  sins  forever,  sat  down  on 
the  right  hand  of  God ;  from  henceforth  expecting  " 
all  enemies  to  be  subdued,  and  the  sanctified  to  be 
perfected.1  The  prophetic  and  priestly  offices  both 
fall  off  in  the  surrendering  of  the  kingly  office ;  but 
they  all  last  till  mediatorial  teaching,  and  expiation, 
and  ruling  have  done  their  work,  and  the  redeemed 
church  has  been  presented  spotless  and  complete 
before  God ;  henceforth  to  "  see  him  as  he  is,"  and 
"  know  as  they  are  known." 

It  is   also   a   fair    implication   for   the    speculative 
reason  to  read  in  this  record,  that  after  the  abdica- 

1  Heb.  x.  12,  13. 


358  '  LAST   THINGS   IN   REDEMPTION. 

tion  of  the  mediatorial  throne,  and  the  assumption  by 
the  Word  of  the  glory  he  had  with  the  Father  before 
the  world  was,  the  purely  human  Son  of  God  must 
still  sustain  peculiar  relations  to  the  glorified  church 
and  the  universal  spirit-world.  No  other  being  can 
be  altogether  like  him.  He  has  been  directly  God- 
created,  as  Were  angels  and  Adam  ;  yet  was  he  created 
man,  arid  not  angel,  and  created  in  the  womb  of  the 
virgin,  and  not  by  inspired  dust  from  the  earth,  as 
was  Adam,  nor  in  ordinary  generation,  as  are  all  other 
human  beings.  In  all  these  respects  he  stands  alone ; 
and  yet  more  peculiarly  unique  than  in  anything  else, 
that  he  has  the  conscious  reminiscence  of  human  ex- 
periences which  have  been  modified  by  their  union 
with  the  divine.  He  is  still  the  very  human  person 
through  whom  temptation,  and  suffering,  and  dying- 
came  to  the  divine,  and  in  whose  human  conscious- 
ness the  divine  energy  came  back  in  vigor  and  vir- 
tue, which  kept  his  heart  from  sinking,  and  his  will 
from  sinning.  The  impressions  thus  given  cart  never 
fade  from  his  own  recognition,  nor  be  lost  to  the  con- 
templation of  other  intelligences.  The  human  saved 
and  the  human  lost  must  stand  to  him,  and  he  to  them, 
as  no  other  beings  reciprocally  can ;  and  ministering 
angel  and  tempting  devil  must  have  an  attitude 
towards  him  which  puts  each  to  each  in  aspects  ex- 
clusively peculiar.  With  no  authoritative  representa- 
tion either  way  from  God  to  man,  or  from  man  to  God, 
his  very  mode  of  being  and  past  experience  make 
him  a  sacramental  sign  to  good  and  bad,  in  which  is 


GIVING  UP  THE   MEDIATORIAL   KINGDOM.  359 

a  savor,  not  as  once  of  divine  efficacy,  but  yet  of 
high  memorial  intensity,  and  which  forever  must  so 
be,  a  savor  of  life  unto  life  to  the  holy,  and  a  savor 
of  death  unto  death  to  the  unholy.  His  peculiarity 
makes  him  universally  conspicuous,  and  every  eye 
that  turns  towards  him  looks  on  the  pierced  one,  and 
in  him  eternally  is  Calvary,  presented  in  sacramental 
symbol,  and  every  spirit,  from  the  reason  of  the  case, 
and  in  his  own  conscious  disposition,  is  obliged,  with 
no  power  of  avoidance,  perpetually  to  "  eat  and  drink/7 
either  his  own  "  damnation,"  or  his  gracious  justifica- 
tion. 

4.  JOHN  SAW  THE  ABSOLUTE  KINGDOM  BEYOND  THE 
MEDIATORIAL.  —  Paul  only  has  prophetically  seen  and 
stated  the  mediatorial  resignation  j  yet  it  is  fully  mani- 
fest the  beloved  disciple,  John,  also  looked  quite  up 
to  this  closing  scene  of  temporary  mediation,  and  if 
he  did  not  behold  the  actual  surrendry  of  the  media- 
torial .sceptre,  —  as  certainly  he  has  nowhere  affirmed 
that  he  did,  —  he  was  even  more  eminently  favored  in 
prophetic  exaltation  to  look  beyond  this  marvellous 
consummation  of  redemptive  expediency,  and  have 
the  broader  vision  of  eternal  life,  where  all  see  the 
Absolute  ELOHIM  as  he  is.  But  while  his  view  is 
more  extensive,  probably  from  the  very  necessity  of 
the  case,  he  describes  what  he  saw  much  less  definite- 
ly. The  sphere  is  so  far  removed  from,  and  so  much 
unlike  to,  the  scenes  of  earth,  that  all  attempts  at  de- 


360  LAST   THINGS   IN   REDEMPTION. 

scription  for  us  must  needs  be  vague,  and  only  through 
the  use  of  symbols. 

In  the  successive  visions  given  in  the  Revelation 
of  John  the  Divine,  we  have,  near  the  commencement, 
presented  to  us  "  a  Book  sealed  with  seven  seals  "  in 
the  right  hand  of  Him  who  sat  upon  the  throne. 
"  And  in  the  midst  of  the  throne,  and  of  the  four 
beasts,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  elders,  stood  a  Lamb 
as  it  had  been  slain ;  and  he  came  and  took  the  Book 
out  of  the  right  hand  of  Him  that  sat  upon  the 
throne/'  and  the  heavenly  choir  "sing  the  new  song, 
saying,  Thou  art  worthy  to  take  the  Book,  and  to 
open  the  seals  thereof."  a  This  sealed  book  holds 
the  future,  and  the  slain  Lamb  opens  the  seals  and 
makes  the  revelations,  which  John  records.  All  along 
the  prophetic  announcements,  it  is  this  Lamb,  who  has 
been  slain  and  is  alive,  that  leads  and  defends  the 
saints,  and  arranges  the  events,  and  controls  all  the 
agencies  involved,  as  the  successive  seals  in  human 
history  open.  Among  the  closing  judgments  belong- 
ing  to  the  providences  in  human  probation  is  the  de- 
struction of  mystical  Babylon,  and  the  introduction 
of  millennial  peace  and  purity,  represented  as  the 
coming  of  "  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb,  and  that  his 
wife  had  made  herself  ready."  2  After  this  millennial 
period  of  triumph  and  joy,  "  the  loosing  of  Satan," 
and  his  "  deceiving  the  nations,"  and  the  gathering 
of "  Gog  and  Magog  "  to  the  last  battle,  there  is  the 
final  destruction  of  God's  and  man's  enemy  by  the 

1  Rev.  v.  2  Rev.  xix.,  xx. 


GIVING  UP  THE  MEDIATORIAL  KINGDOM.  361 

"  casting  of  the  devil  into  the  lake  of  fire,  to  be  tor- 
mented forever,  with  the  beast  and  the  false  prophet." 
Then  follow  the  scenes  of  the  general  resurrection, 
the  final  judgment,  and  the  retributions  of  "the 
second  death "  upon  "  whomsoever  was  not  found 
written  in  the  Book  of  life."  l 

And  now,  just  here,  whether  John's  vision  caught 
or  not  the  event  he  does  not  describe,  must  have  oc- 
curred the  relinquishment  of  the  mediatorial  adminis- 
tration, which  we  have  above  considered  as  so  olearly 
but  concisely  given  by  the  apostle  Paul.  The  re- 
deemed church  was  here,  by  the  Redeemer,  given 
over  to  the  Father;  the  divine  and  human  in  the 
Messiah  were  disunited,  and  the  Word,  which  had 
been  incarnated  in  humanity,  returned  to  his  former 
glory.  After  the  fulfilment  of  those  wonders,  whether 
within  John's  prophetic  ken  or  otherwise,  we  have 
his  further  revelation  of  transmediatorial  glories,  but 
in  highly  figurative  representation  and  in  the  use  of 
mystical  symbols,  and  yet  admiringly  grand  and  pure. 
"  I  saw  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  for  the  first 
heaven  and  the  first  earth  were  passed  away,  and 
there  was  no  more  sea."  Created  nature,  as  appear- 
ing in  sense,  has  all  gone  out,  and  the  merely  phe- 
nomenal qualities  have  passed  away,  since  the  sense- 
organism  has  been  put  off  for  the  resurrection  "  spirit- 
ual body." 

The  bride,  the  Lamb's  wife,  appears  as  a  glorious 
city ;  the  new  Jerusalem,  coming  down  from  God 

1  Rev.  xxi. 


362  LAST  THINGS   IN   REDEMPTION. 

out  of  heaven,  and  within  which  the  espoused  saints 
abide.  "  They  shall  be  his  people,  and  God  himself 
shall  be  with  them,  and  be  their  God."  l  And  here 
we  have  the  enigmatic  but  brilliant  picture  of  the 
saints'  eternal  home  —  to  the  imagination  a  scene  of 
blessedness  inexpressible,  and  only  to  be  known  in 
its  reality  when  we  shall  be  changed  into  the  same 
image  from  glory  to  glory.  There  is  no  need  of  any 
sense-media,  as  of  the  sun  or  the  moon  to  give  light ; 
yea,  there  is  no  divine  Mediator,  for  God  and  the 
Lamb,  as  now  both  one,  immediately  give  light  in 
their  one  glory.  "  A  pure  river  of  life ;  a  tree  of  life, 
with  its  monthly  fruit  and  healing  leaves ;  no  curse, 
and  no  night ;  the  Lord's  face  open  to  them,  and  his 
name  in  their  foreheads,  and  they  reign  forever  and 
ever."  2  All  this  is  in  full  accord  with  Paul's  account 
of  mediatorial  resignation,  for  all  is  post-mediatorial, 
and  one  God  is  all  in  all.  The  river  of  life  comes 
out  of  one  throne,  and  this  throne  has  one  sovereign  ; 
for  God  and  the  Lamb  are  now  but  one  Being,  and 
"  his  servants  shall  serve  him."  Reason  in  speculation 
and  reason  in  revelation  come,  ultimately,  each  to  each, 
in  full  conformity ;  the  one  saying  that  we  need,  and 
the  other  that  we  have,  immediate  communion  with 
God  in  Eternal  Glorv 

1  Rev.  xxi.  *  Rev.  xxii. 


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